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Icecube Spikes





My idea on the mechanism for spike growth requires that the water freezes
from the sides and/or below in order for a passage to form at the top.
As a quick test of this, I took a tray of ice cubes from the freezer and
poked several of them with a hot soldering iron tip. This formed small
(1cm) pools of water on the top of the cubes. These particular cubes
were way below freezing, so I did not have to replace them in the freezer
in order to see the pools of water freeze again. Sure enough, as the ice
advanced inwards the level of each little pool rose upwards, and when
freezing was complete, each pool had a tiny sharp peak in the center!
These weren't spines by any means, they were more like sharp pimples.

After watching this, it occurred to me that I've seen an equal and opposite
phenomenon in the past. What happens with a fluid which shrinks upon
freezing rather than expanding? Pariffin wax! When a pot of melted
wax is allowed to harden in a warm environment, it freezes from the sides
and bottom inwards and does not skin over. The shrinking pool of liquid
falls continuously in level until a funnel-shaped depression is formed.
This depression is probably identical to an icecube-spike, but with an
opposite "polarity." I wonder if these pariffin-funnels have a perfectly
sharp bottom?

LATEST NEWS: I remember seeing ice-spikes mentioned in the "unanswered
questions" section of PLANET SCIENCE website. I checked back there and
found several answers posted by learned people. They say that the
phenomenon has been written up before in journals of atmospheric
sciences. One person from New Zealand has observed very large ice spikes,
and has even seen corkscrew versions (where the changing direction of
wind caused the growing tip to tilt in a circular-varying direction.)




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William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
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