The way humans build 'giant ice towers' in the middle of the desert

Far from the northern part of India, standing halfway between a deserted desert is an ice stupa with the most unusual ice crystal structures ever.

This land is extremely harsh, the rainfall is extremely scarce and the temperature is hot as it burns, when it is cold to bone. Local people here often joke with each other that, this is the only place in the world where a person sitting in the sun and putting his feet in the shade, they will both be sunburned and frostbitten people because of cold.

This is the Ladakh area - meaning "the land" - sandwiched between the world's two highest mountains, the Himalayas and Kunlun. There is very little rain here. The amount of water needed to serve the land and daily life of the local people is mainly due to the melting of the snow.

But it is this changing weather that makes this land more dry, causing serious water shortages in important crops in April and May, just before the glaciers melt in the summer sun. . So what is the solution of the local people?Create more glaciers.

Bao tower of ice

In 2014, a local mechanical engineer named Sonam Wangchuk found measures to deal with severe water shortages in Ladakh. Natural glaciers are shrinking due to rising global temperatures. As a result, they provide less water in the spring, but are rushing in the hot summer. What's worse is that they are getting smaller and smaller.

Wangchuk came up with a simple idea: "He wants to balance this natural deficit by taking water from snow melts in cold winters (this time they will often be wasted) and storing them until spring. when farmers start the cultivating season ".

"I have seen ice and snow under a bridge in May, and I realized that the sun will melt ice, the temperature of the surrounding environment has nothing to do with it," he told CNN . And I realized that we can absolutely store snow and ice, no matter how low it is. "

He then built a prototype "ice stupa" with a two-storey structure, a rock-shaped design that he named after sacred traditional monuments like mountains found throughout Asia. .

Sonam Wangchuk took pictures in Ladakh, northern India.

Why is it a cone and not a cube?

Wangchuk shared that the ice stupa was created without using energy or pumps, just simple physical properties: downstream, upstream and slope.

First, a pipeline will be placed underground, connecting water storage to the place of the ice tower (usually near the village). The water must flow from a place of higher elevation, normally 60 meters or more. Since the fluid in the system always wants to maintain a stable water level, the water flowing from a height of 60 meters towards the upstream will spray downstream pipes. That helps create a sprinkler.

And the cold air will take care of the rest. Water in cold air will crystallize into snow and fall down, forming a cone tower. Wangchuk added: "The conical pyramid will be very easy with snow and ice, because any dripping water form will create a cone underneath - the icicles will have an inverted cone."

But the conical tower also offers other outstanding features: "It has a small surface area compared to the amount of water contained in the ice."

This means it will dissipate very slowly: " 6 meter high ice stupa and contains 150,000 liters of water will maintain from winter to mid-May, just in time when water is needed for irrigation, while snow blocks The surrounding has melted in early March ".

This is the strange "ice stupa" between the barren desert.

The glacier tower is still in the end

One aspect that makes breakthroughs for the ice tower is its viability at any height and even in warm weather conditions. This is not the first artificial glacier in this region, but previous efforts in this area can only exist at altitudes of more than 4,000 meters by freezing the currents in the large canal. This requires shade and continuous preservation, and is placed too far from the cultivation fields.

Instead, the ice tower cone shape can withstand the heat of direct sunlight and can provide water quickly when needed. However, that is not normal maintenance. Wangchuk said that many human interventions are needed now, because sometimes fountains can freeze when water pipes are frozen, something like that.

He hoped that by some technology, the ice tower would become more reliable. That's why he is about to start testing this model in Peru this summer by taking advantage of the southern hemisphere's winter season."We are at the same stage as cars in the 1950s, when drivers have to regularly open the bonnet to fix the damaged ones. However, today's drivers even I don't know what's inside the lid. "

It is a miracle that trees can be grown in this arid land, serving for timber and diversifying the nature here.

This is a project that needs a lot of fundraisers

Due to the infrastructure requirements of pipelines, the initial investment may face many obstacles. Wangchuk estimates that he will need $ 125,000 (about VND 3 billion) to build the first complete ice tower model, which can be as high as 24 meters and can provide irrigation for about 10 hectares of land. ."It seems this is a bit too much for any government, but I believe everyone in the world will support this project."

He decided to call for fund raising, mobilizing people to contribute through Indiegogo, a popular fundraising platform. The campaign was successful and attracted the attention of local organizations."The idea is almost complete, and the Ladhaki government is combining my development plans."

The way the ice tower is formed.

The Ice Tower gave Wangchuk the Rolex Award for Business in 2016, with a prize of 100,000 Francs in Switzerland (over 1 billion VND).

But Wangchuk also wanted to turn the ice stupa into a tourist attraction by building bars and hotels inside them."It will be a unique experience for those who are willing to pay to enjoy it, and the proceeds will pay farmers to limit the water shortage in the spring, which farmers always take. fear ". This is like a mixture of gods and mundane, but Wangchuk fully believes that the ice tower will be a bridge between different cultures.