A heavy blanket of snow, such as we have here in the Nolalu area, southwest of Thunder Bay, makes good insulation. It is well known that snow can prevent the ground from freezing if the snow comes early in the winter. Even if it comes later it stops the frostline from going any deeper. I don't think anybody would dispute this.
However, once the snow has fallen and is insulating the ground from more freezing, my question is does the ground start thawing from the bottom-up? It should be the same as thawing meat in the fridge.
Our ground was frozen probably a foot or more before the heavy snows started coming in January. Now we have at least 30 inches and more is sure to follow. When April comes around and the snow melts, will there be unfrozen ground beneath?
I have another question, why is the ground so cold to begin with? The outer core of the Earth is 5430 C or 9806 F. I would expect the ground, and rock beneath, to get warmer every inch that you go deeper, at least once you get away from the top 10 feet or so that is influenced by surface temperatures. Yet, in the gold mines at Red Lake miners had to wear wool long underwear when they were underground to about 5,000 feet deep. When the Goldcorp mine went 5,000 feet deeper the conditions were hot. I get it why it would be hot 10,000 feet deep. I just don't understand why it wasn't also somewhat hot at 5,000 feet.
Despite my research on the Internet I can't find a clear answer to this question. Anyone know?
I have a theory. I think the Earth and rock might still be cold from the last ice age.
Here's another quandary to ponder, this from my old Bow Narrows blog. What is a shadow?
No comments:
Post a Comment