37
Scientists find a huge hidden ice reservoir beneath Utah’s mountains (www.sciencedaily.com)
submitted 1 day ago by solo@piefed.social to c/earthscience@mander.xyz
14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Beneath the rocky slopes of Mount Timpanogos lies far more ice than anyone walking across the surface might suspect. Researchers used gravity measurements to map the buried glacier in 3D and found it is about 83% ice, with enough frozen water to fill 600 Olympic swimming pools. Their findings suggest rock glaciers form as falling debris buries persistent snow and preserves it for thousands of years. Similar formations around the world may collectively store tens of gigatons of hidden water.

top 14 comments
sorted by: hot top new old
[-] yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 day ago

That's not that much...?

600 olympic swimming pools store 1,500,000,000 liters.

In the US due to ineffecient water use the average person consumes 300 liters of tap water per day (compared to e.g. the Netherlands with 130 L per person/day).

That's enough water for 5,000,000 person days.

[-] kreskin@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

male scientists claim they have something "huge" when in reality its really pretty small.

[-] CarrierLost@infosec.pub 6 points 1 day ago

Under the February 2026 World Aquatics rules, the minimum dimensions for an Olympic Games or World Championships pool are 50 m × 25 m × 2.5 m, a rectangular volume of 3.125 million litres.

So 600 Olympic swimming pools would be approximately 1,875 million (1.875B) litres or 495.3 million gallons.

[-] moonshine69 2 points 1 day ago

The article states 1.5 million liters.. and the paper says 1.55 x 10^6 m³

[-] CarrierLost@infosec.pub 1 points 1 day ago

I didn’t read the article or the paper. I just wanted to know how much 600 Olympic pools was.

And apparently the amount of ice is much less than 600 pools. 🤷‍♂️

[-] amio@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

enough frozen water to fill 600 Olympic swimming pools

bruh

[-] crispbacon99@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

They could've at least said which year of the Olympics they're referring to.

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

How much is that in elephants?

[-] amio@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Reeeee!

[-] plyth@feddit.org 9 points 1 day ago

That comes in handy to cool the data centers.

[-] BooBees@fedinsfw.app 2 points 1 day ago

Between that and the luxury infinity pools for the private clubs for the ultra wealthy, we’re gonna need more water up there, better build a pipeline up the mountains from the closest village

[-] The_Che_Banana@beehaw.org 4 points 1 day ago

Nestlé heavy breathing

[-] Aqivex@fedinsfw.app 5 points 1 day ago

That...is going to be very very bad for anyone downhill pretty soon.

this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2026
37 points (97.4% liked)

Earth, Environment, and Geosciences

3889 readers
15 users here now

Welcome to c/EarthScience @ Mander.xyz!

Notice Board

This is a work in progress, please don't mind the mess.

What is geoscience?

Geoscience (also called Earth Science) is the study of Earth. Geoscience includes so much more than rocks and volcanoes, it studies the processes that form and shape Earth's surface, the natural resources we use, and how water and ecosystems are interconnected. Geoscience uses tools and techniques from other science fields as well, such as chemistry, physics, biology, and math! Read more...

Quick Facts

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Be kind and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.

Jobs

Teaching Resources

Tools

Climate

Similar Communities

Sister Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Plants & Gardening

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Memes

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
mishathings@mander.xyz
notsofunnycomment@mander.xyz
troyunrau@lemmy.ca