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Letter: Glacier blankets

Published 12 January 2005

From Donald Ingham

At the top of Mount St Helens there is a new glacier. Its rapid growth is due in part to the insulating layer of rock debris on the surface of the ice (27 November 2004, p 32). Can we use this effect to stop the global melt? If we covered a glacier or ice sheet with a thin layer of powdered rock, would we preserve the ice?

vestkaer@t-online.de

Issue no. 2482 published 15 January 2005

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