An avalanche is a large mass of snow that falls and moves rapidly down a mountainside, sometimes killing people. They can be triggered by earthquakes creating a weak layer of snow or heavy snowfall. A minor avalanche has killed over 900 people. Landslides are also ground movements that occur when the soil or rock fails, but they are caused by earthquakes damaging the earth's surface rather than snow, and major landslides have killed over 1,000 people.