VIDEO: Ridiculous Avalanche in Northern Norway Clobbers Mine, Travels Across Lake

Despite how bad this avalanche looks, almost nothing at this mine was damaged in the avy thanks to a 15-meter (50 feet) tall concrete avalanche wall.  You can see the burly avalanche wall protecting the structures.  You can actually hear the avalanche hit the wall at 1:14 in the video.

It’s amazing to watch the avalanche engulf the buildings and travel across the lake.  Triggering avalanches and having them hit the wall is a relatively frequent occurrence at this mine.

This avalanche happened April 8th, 2014 in Northern Norway in the region of Finmark in the town of Stjernøya, (star island in English).  100 people work at this mine.  They were evacuated at the time of the avalanche.

“Just another normal day at Sibelco.” – employee

This processing plant at Sibelco is protected by a 15-meter avalanche wall.  The wind pressure from the avalanche damaged the ventilation of the buildings, but the

Three hours after this avalanche, they were back at work in the mine.