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In episode 9 of _Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho_ (宇宙よりも遠い場所), an icebreaker is shown
breaking the ice.

From what I saw, the ship seems to lift itself up over the ice by shooting
water out, as seen in these screenshots:

![water gushing out from the ship](https://i.stack.imgur.com/V4e4zl.png)

![water gushing out - front view](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cjNXHl.jpg)

I think the ship is trying to reduce its weight so that it floats and goes
above the ice, then it can crush it with its weight. However, in an earlier
shot, I saw that the ship is already partially on the ice:

![plowing through the ice](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Nynm6l.png)

So why does it still need to shoot out water?

Also, I know that the icebreaker in the anime is based on
[Shirase](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_icebreaker_Shirase_\(AGB-5003\))
icebreaker, so I looked up videos on YouTube to see how it breaks ice IRL. As
you can see at the beginning of this
[video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQPBNUdPXC4), there isn't any water
coming out of the ship. It just runs over the ice and the ice just breaks
automatically.

Why is there a need for the water anyway? Is this just to make the scene more
dramatic?


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2018-03-02T20:48:04.383
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2018-03-03T05:04:40.030
2018-03-03T05:04:40.030
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sora-yori-mo-tooi-basho
Why is water coming out of the icebreaker?


At the very beginning of that video, it isn't breaking any ice, it's just
pushing the small fragments aside as it moves forward. If you watched more of
the same video, you will see that [it does shoot
water](https://youtu.be/rQPBNUdPXC4?t=229).

It is equipped with what is known as a snow-melting water-sprinkler (融雪用散水装置).
It is not a device to lift the ship up, but a device to melt snow. It shoots
out pumped-up sea water to melt the snow on top of the the ice, reducing
friction (and cushioning) between the ice and the ship, making it easier for
the ship to break the ice.

Some references I used.  
[JMSDF Shirase page
(JP)](http://www.mod.go.jp/msdf/formal/operation/nankyoku55.html)  
[Kamome propeller company, makers of the sprinkling system](http://www.kamome-
propeller.co.jp/ships/shirase/)  


CC BY-SA 3.0
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answer