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Icebergs May Aid
Water Supply
Cities of the future may tow in an iceberg to help solve water shortages. For decades, men have sought to tap the abundant water locked in the polar icecaps. Antarctica alone holds about 80% of the Earth’s fresh water in its frozen grip. More than a century ago, ships from San Francisco sailed to Alaska to bring back lake ice. But in 1853, when mild weather slowed the freezing of lakes, glacier ice proved a satisfactory substitute, the National Geographic Society says.
Towing Icebergs Proposed
Oceanographers have suggested that icebergs could be towed to the West Coast to furnish water for Southern California’s desert.
Two United States scientists recently estimated that if an iceberg 250 yards thick and 2,700 yards across were towed to Australia, it would provide 207 billion gallons of water-even though 70% of the iceberg would melt during the trip.
Dr. William Campbell, of the Department of the Interior’s Geological Survey, and Dr. Wilford Weeks of the Army’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, concluded that a sea-going tug could make the voyage for less than $1 million. The fresh water obtained from the iceberg would be worth about $5.5 million.
This would be less than a tenth of-% the cost for an equivalent 'Snjount of desalted sea water.
The scientists had in mind tabular, or flat-surfaced icebergs that form when the continental ice shelf covering Antarctica is eroded by the pressure of tides, storms, snowfalls, and even earthquakes.
For example, ice formation thrusts the 160,000-square-mile Ross Ice Shelf seaward as much as
91.4%