Skip to content
Smartable Academy
Smartable tools

← Heat Transfer in Nature

Your progress

Checking your sign-in…

Who's learning?

Each profile keeps its own read lessons, badges, streak, and practice scores on this device.

Lesson 11 of 15

Ice stupas

Show on a big screen

5 min

Text size

In Ladakh, streams carry little water when the fields need it. An ice stupa, a big cone of ice, helps.

Loading lab…

The idea

In winter, stream water runs down a pipe. It shoots out into the cold air.
Step 1 of 4
  1. In winter, stream water runs down a pipe. It shoots out into the cold air.
  2. It freezes. Layer by layer, a cone of ice grows.
  3. In spring, the streams run low.
  4. The cone melts slowly. Its water goes to the fields.

A cone has less surface than a flat sheet of ice. The Sun reaches less of the cone. So the ice lasts longer.

An ice stupa freezes winter water into a cone of ice. The cone melts slowly and gives water in spring.

Try the lab to finish this lesson.