06
icebreakers: they break ice
Tagged Under : Bering Sea, climate
This would never have occurred to me, but now at least three people have asked it, with varying degrees of seriousness. Are icebreakers bad for the ice?
It’s not a completely nutty question. Icebreakers do, yknow, break the ice. And they leave water behind them. Open water is darker than ice, and while ice reflects heat, water absorbs it. That’s part of why it’s bad that sea ice is disappearing from the Arctic, particularly in summer – the ice helps keep the region cool, by reflecting the sun’s energy away from the Earth. (I say “particularly in summer” because that’s when the Arctic gets sun.)
Anyway, the answer is pretty much what you’d think – compared to the vast expanse of sea ice in the Arctic or Bering Sea, the tracks broken by an icebreaker are tiny. Not big enough to be interesting. So, don’t worry, I’m not ruining the planet by breaking the ice.
OK then, application to ride on an icebreaker and science-write: approved.
Whew – thanks! Good thing, ’cause I already bought my ticket.
Hm, is the icebreaker nuclear-powered?
You’d be amazed at how fast an icebreaker’s wake closes up – it can happen while you watch – the brash ice (broken pieces) rushes right in to fill the gap. It’s like a big zipper closes up as the ship passes through. The Healy (the ship Helen and I are on this April-May) is diesel-powered.