Climbers and guides drink large volumes of water at altitude to avoid dehydration, and collectively produce more than 6,000 litres of urine a day
  • ToiletFlushShowerScream@piefed.worldEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    Wouldnt 6 thousand liters of urine a day roughly melt 6 thousand liters of ice a day just in areas concentrated around the base camps if the ice isn’t colder than -37C?

    And the title aside, I think the article mentioned the study included lots of heat sources, with urine being a smaller part.

    • evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      4 days ago

      Not exactly. The specific heat of ice is about half of the specific heat of water.

      So 6 tonnes of urine at 37°C would take 12 tonnes of ice from -37°C to 0°C.

      That’s still ice, though, and it takes way more energy to thaw ice that to warm ice from -37 to 0.

      Actually, I’ll just do the math.

      6 Mg piss * 37°C * 4.18 J/g°C = 929 MJ

      Let’s say ambient ice temp is -20°C.

      20°C * 2.05 J/g°C * X + 333.55 J/g * X = 929 MJ

      X ~2.5 tonnes of ice melted.

      Not too bad. I suspect the change in albedo is the real problem.