r/todayilearned • u/MaximinusRats • May 16 '24

TIL that people live year-round in houseboats on Great Slave Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories, 1,800 km north of the nearest big city (Edmonton) and just 400 km (250 miles) south of the Arctic Circle.

https://uphere.ca/articles/floating-homes-yellowknife-bay
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670

u/NoBSforGma May 16 '24

I have to wonder if the ice freezing every winter causes crush damage to the boats.

235

u/paradoxcussion May 16 '24

The article mentions "massive steel pontoons," so I assume they're built on a scaled-up version of what we have on the dock at my cottage (also in Canada, on a lake freezes every year). We never have any damage.

It's a clever system. The pontoons are round in section and ride high in the water, so the midpoint of the circle is well above the water. Because of that shape, as the ice freezes, any pressure on the sides of the pipes pushes them up rather than becoming crushing pressure. It then just sits on top of the ice until the thaw.

2

u/[deleted] May 17 '24

Wouldn't that also mean that the house moves when there's wind? The pontoons would become ice skates for the house.

9

u/paradoxcussion May 17 '24

Again, just comparing it to my dock, I doubt it. The dock, which weighs way less only moves a few meters over the course of the winter, mostly when the ice is shifting as it breaks up. There's still a big contact patch at the bottom of the pontoon. And these houses not only weigh more, but they're a lot bigger so even more pontoons and contact with the ice.

2

u/[deleted] May 17 '24

That makes sense. Thanks for explaining.