[Granville-Hough] 11 Aug 2009 - Snap, Crackle, and Pop
Trustees for Granville W. Hough
gwhough-trust at oakapple.net
Fri Aug 11 05:33:39 PDT 2017
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:51:34 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Snap, Crackle, and Pop - 11 Aug 2009
When I was assigned to Thule, Greenland, I learned it was the land
of snap, crackle, and pop. Of course, this required some special ice in
your glass, with some kind of liquid poured over it. Where did this ice
come from?
We soon learned that just beyond the huge BMEWS radar was an inlet
from the ocean, and on the other side was a huge cliff of ice formed by
glaciers which calved into the inlet. These huge hunks of ice would
eventually float southward and become icebergs in the North Atlantic,
but here in the inlet, they got hung up on the bottom, and just rocked
back and forth in the wind and tide. At some point, the soldiers and
airmen at Thule found these were fine sources of fresh water. Because
of the entrapped air in the ice, the glacial ice did indeed snap,
crackle, and pop as it melted.
It sounds easy that we could go out on the frozen inlet with an
icepick and chip off as much as you wanted from the nearest iceberg;
however the rocking motion of the big hunk of ice back and forth kept
open water and mushy crushed ice right next to it. You get out there
and there is the hazard of that few feet of open water and crushed ice.
After some near fatalities, the commander forbade collecting ice except
under special circumstances and permission. So you got to see snap,
crackle, and pop on rare occasions.
But it was there! Grampa.
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