Glaciers will be restored with water pumps / day

A layer of glacial glacials can be restored. It will not be fast and cheap, but to be done. Such a statement has been made by researchers at the University of Cambridge, who have succeeded in developing a new method of ice growing.

In fact, the method is eternal – pumping water from the ocean and pouring into a thin layer above the glacier, where it freezes immediately due to low air temperature. The new one is that scientific studies have discovered the double effect of this technique. Namely, the same layer of ice growing above the glacier, at the same time, occurs underneath it, in which the water is pumped.

In small -scale trials last year, researchers managed to increase the glacier layer by 50 centimeters – 25 centimeters on the surface and just as below the glacier. This year they in cooperation with the British non -profit mission Real Ice Plans to start a more ambitious method of testing in Canada.

Promotes freezing

Rapid ice growth above the glacier occurs because the water on the surface of the ocean flattens the porous layer of snow, which served as a layer of insulation and delayed the formation of ice. When the snow is mixed with water and compressed in a dense mass, it freezes much faster. In one winter, this way can make the ice layer up to two meters thicker.

« If this work can be repeated on a larger scale, we will show that with a relatively small amount of energy in winter we can benefit great, » the portal Livescience quotes one of Real Ice Executive Directors Andre Cekolini. The organization intends to develop a underwater drone that would swim under the glaciers and measure their thickness. In the thinnest places, a pump would be installed, which pumped ocean water from the bottom of the glaciers and the poured on the top.

There is no shortage of challenges

Of course, there are still many unanswered questions. For example, will the ice layer applied in the winter not completely fall off in the summer? Answers could be answered in Canada. The second question is even more disturbing: will the salty ocean water contribute to faster glacial melting? The productivity of the method also seems dubious. How many pumps will it take to grow the ice layer for the entire Arctic and Antarctic glacier, and how will the sound of their creation affect the animals and fish living in the region? It is known that mammals, especially whales, do not like industrial noises very much. They are able to change the behavior of animals.

The authors of the project are not yet able to respond to the fauna, but they have made calculations for the pumps.

It is planned to use very simple autonomous pumps that would cost around $ 5,000 a piece. The implementation of the project would require half a million such pumps, which each year a layer of ice in an area of ​​about one million square kilometers, which is about half of the Greenland area.

Would pay the whole company

Assuming that the extended ice layer would last for several years, scientists could work in another region every year. This would, of course, require ambitious planning and logistics, as well as even more ambitious funding, but the authors of the work claim that the investment is worth it because the pole glaciers reflect much of the sun’s radiation. If they disappeared, the heat would be absorbed by the ocean, further accelerating climate change.

One of the ideas for funding is the global fund, where the international community pays money to save the planet. The other is the creation of a planet’s « cooling loan » system, similar to the current carbon dioxide emissions quotas. However, before the idea of ​​raising money, scientists still need to make sure that the ambitious plan will work in nature.