Question

The snowfall from the Feb 10, 2018 snowstorm covered most of IA, northern IL, northern IN, and southern MI. While some locations in that snow swath saw over a foot of snow, let’s assume the average depth of the snow over this area was 9 inches. If the total area covered by the 9-inch average depth was 72,300 square miles, what percentage of the volume of the Grand Canyon would this amount of snow fill?

a) What is the average depth of snow in feet over the mentioned area?

b) Calculate the volume of snow covering the specified area.

c) Determine the volume of the Grand Canyon.

d) Calculate the percentage of the Grand Canyon's volume that the snow would fill.

Answer 1

The average snow depth over 72,300 square miles was converted to 0.75 feet, and the volume of snow was calculated to be approximately 171,676,500,000 cubic feet. After converting the Grand Canyon's volume into cubic feet, it was found that the snow would fill about 0.117% of the Grand Canyon.

Step-by-step explanation:

To answer this question, we need to perform a series of calculations:

a) Average Depth in Feet

First, convert the average snow depth from inches to feet:

9 inches ÷ 12 inches/foot = 0.75 feet

b) Volume of Snow

Next, calculate the volume of the snowfall:

72,300 square miles × (0.75 feet) × (5280 feet/mile)^2 = 171,676,500,000 cubic feet

c) Volume of the Grand Canyon

Assuming the volume of the Grand Canyon is approximately 5.45 trillion cubic yards (as commonly cited), we must convert this to cubic feet:

5.45 trillion cubic yards × 27 cubic feet/cubic yard = 147,150,000,000,000 cubic feet

d) Percentage of the Grand Canyon Filled

Now, divide the volume of snow by the volume of the Grand Canyon and multiply by 100 to get the percentage:

(171,676,500,000 cubic feet / 147,150,000,000,000 cubic feet) × 100 ≈ 0.117%

Therefore, the snow from the aforementioned storm would fill approximately 0.117% of the Grand Canyon's volume.