Blankets Used to Prevent Glacier Melting
- 11 years ago
Alpine crews have been hard at work getting the Rhone glacier in Switzerland ready for summer. Part of the ice mass is being wrapped in special blankets to slow the glacial melting.
We’ve all heard that glaciers that glaciers are disappearing at increasingly alarming rates, causing a panic over the long-term implications of rising sea levels and vanishing shorelines.
Alpine crews have been hard at work getting the Rhone glacier in Switzerland ready for summer. Part of the ice mass is being wrapped in special blankets to slow the glacial melting.
Some parts of the globe are feeling the crunch caused by the melting now and among them is the Alps. At particular risk is the Alpine skiing and tourism industry.
A popular draw of the Rhone glacier is that each year a tunnel is drilled through it, allowing tourists an opportunity to see it from the inside.
It and many other especially vulnerable locations in the Alps have had to resort to the very pricey and incredibly labor intensive blanketing.
In 2010 one French ski resort reported that in their case the job took 10 men and a helicopter two days to lay the protective barrier. The reported cost was approximately 40 thousand dollars.
We’ve all heard that glaciers that glaciers are disappearing at increasingly alarming rates, causing a panic over the long-term implications of rising sea levels and vanishing shorelines.
Alpine crews have been hard at work getting the Rhone glacier in Switzerland ready for summer. Part of the ice mass is being wrapped in special blankets to slow the glacial melting.
Some parts of the globe are feeling the crunch caused by the melting now and among them is the Alps. At particular risk is the Alpine skiing and tourism industry.
A popular draw of the Rhone glacier is that each year a tunnel is drilled through it, allowing tourists an opportunity to see it from the inside.
It and many other especially vulnerable locations in the Alps have had to resort to the very pricey and incredibly labor intensive blanketing.
In 2010 one French ski resort reported that in their case the job took 10 men and a helicopter two days to lay the protective barrier. The reported cost was approximately 40 thousand dollars.