Maybe not real usefull to a lot of people, but I found it intresting....and am filing it to my "Hey, I did not know that."
Was watching Flying Alaska last nite, whale hunt was on the show........
Winter camps were out on the ice, and made mention of ocean ice being used for drinking water.
I had never heard of this...as i had always assumed it would be salty.
So in looking it up, found this:
Quote>
Can you drink melted sea ice?
New ice is usually very salty because it contains concentrated droplets called brine that are trapped in pockets between the ice crystals, and so it would not make good drinking water. As ice ages, the brine eventually drains through the ice, and by the time it becomes multi year ice, nearly all of the brine is gone. Most multi year ice is fresh enough that someone could drink its melted water. In fact, multi year ice often supplies the fresh water needed for polar expeditions. See Salinity and Brine in the Characteristics section for more information. <qoute
http://nsidc.org/seaice/intro.html
So it seems that iceburgs and any river ice as well as multi-year ice can be used as drinking water.
Seems the salt gets 'squeesed out" in older ice, making it potable.
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