Temperature isn’t the only factor that determines how ice will melt. In this photo, a dark oak leaf absorbed more solar radiation than the reflective ice around it, causing the Keep reading
Tag: ice
The Best of FYFD 2020
2020 was certainly a strange year, and I confess that I mostly want to congratulate all of us for making it through and then look forward to a better, happier, Keep reading
A Colorful Portrait of Flow
This gorgeous, natural-color image shows Lake Balkhash in southeastern Kazakhstan. In early March, the ice on the lake was beginning to break up, revealing glimpses of swirling sediment below the Keep reading
Eroding Ice
When glaciers form, they do so in layers, with clear blue ice sandwiched between sediment and air-bubble-filled white ice. Because each of these layers absorbs sunlight differently, they don’t melt Keep reading
Ice Rings Caused By Underlying Eddies
Observations of strange ice rings on Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest lake, have puzzled scientists for decades. Surveys of satellite imagery have revealed rings on Baikal and two other lakes Keep reading
Ice Labyrinths
Pattern formation is extremely common in nature, from the dendritic growth of trees and snowflakes to the stripes of a tiger. A new paper describes how a thin layer of Keep reading
As Ice Flows
The movement of glaciers is driven by gravity. The immense weight of the ice causes it to both slide downhill and deform – or creep. As glacier melting speeds up, Keep reading
Enormous Ice Disk
We’ve seen spinning ice disks before, but this month Westbrook, Maine has developed the largest one I’ve ever seen. A research paper from 2016 indicates that this seemingly alien formation spins Keep reading
“Ice Formations”
As perfect as ice can appear, it always starts with a defect. Without a speck of dust or soot to act as a seed, supercooled water simply will not freeze. Keep reading
Forming Europa’s Bands
Jupiter’s icy moons, Europa and Ganymede, are home to subsurface oceans. These moons also experience strong tidal forces from their parent planet and sibling moons that squeeze and deform them Keep reading