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To: thackney
Freshly fallen snow is typically 10% or less the density of ice

The key words being "freshly-fallen." Snow that's been tromped by feet or tires, or even compacted by more snow on top of it, not so much.

We get infrequent snow here in Atlanta. Once, another kid hit me with a snowball, and it busted my lip -- there was a hunk of solid ice hidden in the middle with snow packed around it. I don't know whether that was deliberate, but I suspect so. Nathaniel was a nasty little shit.

When I lived in Alaska the mountains of snow removed from streets and parking lots were huge. This will help some areas.

The first time I saw huge amounts of snow was in Colorado, above two miles elevation. The roads through the mountain passes were like narrow canyons. Look left, look right, see nothing but white. Someone, presumably with a shovel, had carved out little semicircles to make the street signs visible.

A 'bot like this could at least make the mess more compact. It's weird to talk about water, in any form, as "mess," because in Georgia we're literally praying for it. But neat bricks of ice can be stacked and packed.

Haul them out to the lake and use them as building materials for igloo-style shacks so folks can engage in ice fishing. This Southern boy considers ice fishing a particularly acute form of insanity, but that's just me. In any case, come the spring thaw, the walls dissolve right along with the floor.

Now, if there's a reasonable way to pack that compacted ice into box cars or shipping containers and dump it into Lake Lanier, halle-freaking-lujah. Bring it on. But I doubt it's practical.

Most substances are more compact in solid form than liquid -- H2O is a rare exception, because its crystalline structure gives ice a larger volume for a given mass than liquid water. That is why ice cubes float, why freezing bursts pipes, and why freezing water in road cracks creates potholes.

55 posted on 01/03/2008 10:48:02 AM PST by ReignOfError
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To: ReignOfError

In Anchorage, some of the piles of snow from road and parking lot removal are still around by late July.


56 posted on 01/03/2008 10:51:11 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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