- Jarred Figlar-Barnes - Elma, WA - United States Pykrete a
glacier??? If you have ever seen the show Mythbusters, you would
know of a material called Pykrete. It is 10-15% sawdust mixed
85-90% water. When frozen this material takes a far longer time
to melt than regular ice, it is also much tougher than ice too.
What I saw was a possible short term solution to a long-term
problem. Melting glaciers. What if you could stop a large
glacier from melting, using this same idea? You would have to
disperse the material (sand, sawdust) on the glacier in winter,
preferably before a large snow storm. America’s fastest growing
glacier, Crater glacier in Mount St. Helen’s crater, is well on
its way to being the lower 48’s largest glacier, and even though
none of the ice pre-dates 1980, at its thickest point its over
600 feet deep. It is advancing at a rate of 50 ft a year and
thickening 15 feet per year. Most of the glacier is below the
average height for glaciers in Washington State, so why is it
growing? Rock slides an