Some social processes are like an avalanche: they occur unannounced, expand rapidly, and sometimes have a big social and economic impact. So far, we know little about the emergence, and the dynamics of “social avalanches” in society. The research project ‘The Dynamics of Social Avalanches: Tracking Networks of Communication’ (DYSA), approaches social avalanches as expanding waves in the communication across the social systems of science, politics, economics and the mass media, and the related structures and semantics of communication networks.