Ice Formations
I headed up to Moosehead Sunday to capture some images of the pancake ice that was all over Facebook. I was hoping to get a shot using the formations in the ice as a foreground with some pretty sky or mountain as a background, but ended up focusing largely on the textures and patterns as viewed from above.
While on the topic of ice formations, I figured I’d also explain the formations from last year’s Frozen Kineo picture. If you look closely at the image, you can see a small hole at the center of each of the rings. Water was pushed up through the ice forming puddles. As the water at the edge of the puddles evaporated, it cooled and began forming ice crystals. Eventually, the center of the puddle was able to freeze smooth. The same basic process is responsible for the long white lines. Each of which has a crack running through the middle where water was pushed up.
I got a couple of questions asking what causes this so I thought I’d give a quick explanation. Generally a thin layer of ice is broken up by wave action into smaller pieces. The sharp edges of these pieces get rounded off as they bump together. The ridges around the edges form as slush splashes up from the gaps and freezes.
