Radical New Icebreaker Will Travel Through the Ice Sideways

cylonlover writes "Given that icebreakers clear a path for other ships by traveling through the ice head-on (or sometimes butt-on), then in order for one of them to clear a wider path, it would have to be wider and thus larger overall ... right? Well, Finland's Arctech Helsinki Shipyard is taking a different, more efficient approach. It's in the process of building an asymmetric-hulled icebreaker that can increase its frontal area, by making its way through the ice at an angle of up to 30 degrees."

Comments

Re:Waste of Time

[FatLittleMonkey]

While the z0mg!panic! was stupid, there is an issue here. Meltwater ponds reflect less sunlight than bare ice, so warm the ice underneath much quicker (until it cracks and the pond drains out.) The problem is that in single-year ice, the meltwater ponds form shallow and wide on the smooth surface, maximising their surface area. Multi-year ice is gnarled and shattered and jagged, so melt-water tends to collect in crevices (or even crevasses) with a much smaller area in the sun. With the recent losses of multi-year ice, the remaining ice is caught in a vicious feedback loop: More single-year ice, more open ponds, so more melting. More melting, more open ocean, so more single-year ice next winter. Rinse, repeat.