Sprinkle soil on the ice wall around driveway?

[Greg Bernhardt]

I have 5 feet of compacted snow/ice walls hugging my driveway. A crazy thought went through my mind that I have extra bags of soil in my garage that are nearly black. I thought maybe I could melt the ice walls down and not hurt my lawn or driveway if I sprinkled that soil on the walls when it's sunny. Cool idea or a bad idea?

 

[Baluncore]

In the big picture, it is bad for the Earth.
We need to reflect more heat into space.
You are causing global warming.

 

[jrmichler]

Yes, it will help. Not crazy, just physics. I live up north, in the land of unsalted roads. In sunny weather, road ice melts next to the clear areas, but does not melt where it is too thick for the sun to get through to the black pavement. Sprinkle on a very thin layer, just enough to absorb the heat.

And the Wisconsin DNR thanks you for being environmentally conscious and not using salt, even if you are causing global warming: https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/newsroom/... shown a,impaired by high salt concentrations.

 

[Borek]

Yes, it should help. Soil, soot, ash from the fireplace, they all help in similar way.

 

[256bits]

As said, thin or thinner layer.
too much and one gets insulation for the ice/snow.

 

[Baluncore]

Maybe a sheet of clear polythene over the top, to get some local greenhouse effect.

 

[tech99]

Maybe a sheet of clear polythene over the top, to get some local greenhouse effect.

I think greenhouses require an infra red absorber inside in order to work.

 

[Baluncore]

I think greenhouses require an infra red absorber inside in order to work.

While I think, your 'IR absorber', (a wavelength converter to IR), would be the soil that was first sprinkled onto the surface. The clear film reduces the loss of half the IR, before the IR can melt the snow.