The extent of ocean ice that surrounds Antarctica has reached a new record, 20 million km2, according to scientists at the Cooperative Center for Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem Research in Australia. However, icebergs are not included in this category. While the layers that are frozen directly in the sea contain a lot of salt, the same does not happen with the large frozen blocks. Icebergs are produced by breaking and separating into parts of a much larger piece located on land, such as glaciers, or of another larger iceberg. For this reason, the liquid that constitutes them has no salt and is part of the Earth’s fresh water reserves –they make up less than 3% of the total–, along with glaciers, rivers, lakes and underground currents.
About 70% of this warehouse is retained in a solid state and located at the poles, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – a US agency charged with monitoring the state of the oceans and the atmosphere. This body ensures that the new icebergs that form each year in Antarctica contain enough fresh water to meet the needs of the world’s population for several months . However, the arid areas of the planet, where the need for the precious liquid is most pressing, are too far from the poles for them to take advantage of it.
There are those who think that this does not have to be an impediment. There are several research projects dedicated to developing methods to transport large frozen blocks to warm areas. However, one of the main limitations is distance and its consequences. Indeed, the temperature of the oceanic surface increases between 20 ° C and 30 ° C from the poles to the equator, so much of the ice would melt along the way. For something to remain of the block, its dimensions would have to be considerable, which would add another obstacle to its movement. Additional obstacles are waves, which often exceed four meters, and currents. These would complicate the control of the iceberg once in the open sea, would slow down the trip and could split the ice cube in two.
Some of the proposed solutions are to place the icebergs near strong water currents so that these drag them from the poles to southern areas; cover its surface to avoid thawing; or divide them into smaller pieces that could be transported by boat. The process is expensive, time consuming, and arduous.
Anyway, although complicated, the idea is feasible. In fact, the ship Norseman is dedicated to towing icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland . Their job is to clear the area of ice blocks to prevent them from hitting the Hibernia oil platform. A similar system could be used to move them to areas of drought.
