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Why does dirty snow take longer to melt, and could we protect glaciers by 'dirtying' them?

Following the recent spell of cold weather, I noticed that there are still piles of dirty snow with sand or grit (but not salt) in them, but all the clean snow has melted.

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Last edited on: 2010-01-18 16:32:53

Categories: Our universe, Weather , Environment.

Tags: weather, environment, planetearth, physics, water, light, snow, glaciers.

 

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MikeAdams#367 says:

Normally you would expect just the opposite, if all other factors are equal. Darker colored snow should absorb more heat from the sun and melt faster. I suspect that the piles are compacted relative to the untouched snow, so that there is a significantly greater mass of snow to melt and that this more than compensates for the faster melting rate/gram of snow.

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Tags: weather, environment, planetearth, physics, water, light, snow, glaciers.

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posted on 2010-01-19 12:37:09 | Report abuse


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