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To: BenLurkin

Are Antarctic glaciers fresh water?


89 posted on 05/06/2017 11:23:50 AM PDT by joshua c (Cut the cord! Don't pay for the rope they hang you with.)
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To: joshua c

I would think the glaciers, frozen snow and ice flowing down to the sea would be fresh.

Dad used to ask us kids if icebergs were fresh water, at the dinner table.

Would not tell the answer. We kids discussed it ,kind of.

The icebergs from glaciers would be fresh. If they are 32 deg F, they should not be able to make any salt water freeze onto their surface. In fact the salt water should cause them to melt faster. Not withstanding this school experiment with ice cubes in fresh and salt water:

https://blossoms.mit.edu/sites/default/files/video/guide/Ice-CubeMelt-Teacher-Guide.pdf

(Comments on this experiment. It ends by showing Ocean currents and mentions climate change. So there may be an agenda amongst the factual sounding text. One problem is the scale of the experiment. At room temperature in a lab with no water or air movement, the experiment would be correct. But at the poles with icebergs, the water temperature would not be ‘room temp’, 72 deg F, say, so the ‘circulation’ would not occur, the fresh melt would not float to the top of the sea water as an insulating layer, due to ocean water movement.)

The frozen sea ice should be salt. Looks like Arctic ice can be up to 15 feet thick. This is not thick enough to last on any tow trip. In Saturday afternoon cartoons, Chilly Willy did get to the Tropics on his chunk of ice, barely.

I will bet on icebergs being fresh, with some salt taste splashed on the outer surface.


94 posted on 05/06/2017 11:56:09 AM PDT by Scrambler Bob (Brought to you from Turtle Island, otherwise known as 'So-Called North America')
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