How long does the transportation? - To protect the icebergs from melting while being towed to the Antarctic, they should be covered with a layer of protective film. This procedure takes a long time. If you cover the iceberg overlapping plastic film 3-meter wide, wrap each kilometer of the tow "caravan" will have teams consisting of 8-12 people, ranging from 100 to 300 hours. Three teams could work in shifts around the clock.
Only the icebergs, which are mounted propellers should "pack" is still in place forming a "caravan", and the remaining giants would be to wrap the foil during transport. Most favorable towing speed, despite enormous traction, cannot be considered a colossal: Ice worm will crawl across the ocean at a speed of 2 knots (about 3.5 km / h). Therefore, the journey from the Ross Sea to California last for about a year.
What ice loss in transit? - Double insulated with plastic film thickness of
0,025 mm effectively fuses the visible, from the tip of the iceberg melting. The bulk of the iceberg is under water, and streamlined its sea water activates the melting of ice, despite the double layer film coating. Therefore, a film layer should be separated from each other, as well as the film layer from the ice surface of the iceberg, using a corrugated material with a corrugated surface. This will create a void that will be formed to fill the melting iceberg water. The latter, in turn, creates an ideal insulation. The complex of all these measures will maintain the overall loss of ice during transportation at less than 10% of the mass of the iceberg.
What specific difficulties may arise during the transportation of icebergs? - Due to the large mass of ice transported significantly makes itself known Coriolis force arising due to rotation of the Earth. She denies moving objects in the northern hemisphere - the right, and in the Southern Hemisphere - to the left. In order to prevent its effects, "caravan" to go at a certain angle to the direction of motion, something like this makes a running wolf.
How to deal with the iceberg at the destination? - Delivered by icebergs must first cut it or break up into small pieces. Only after this process begins melting ice. At the present stage of technological development is most expedient to direct the flow of ice blocks on the shore along the tube, the outer walls of which are heated by seawater. Later, when they built large nuclear power plants, cost-effective to be used for these purposes are not allowed to run out the heat of these giants.