Questions tagged [ice]
Questions related to the solid phase of water.
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Does Arctic sea ice form a continuous flat sheet in winter between Russia and Canada, or are there gaps of water?
In the footage of Arctic sea ice in the spring or summer you can see gaps of water, lines of water between ice sheets, or kind of lakes of water mixed with icebergs. Even as far north as the North ...
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Formation of ice shape
Last night it dropped to around 25°F here in Wildwood, GA. I noticed what looked like patches of cotton on the ground that were not there the day before. At closer look they are patches of frost/ice....
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Change in thermohaline circulation due to climate change
The melting of the North Polar ice masses removes a driving factor from the thermohaline circulation, known as the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic. I wonder how much the thermohaline circulation has ...
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How cold would the Earth have to be for the oceans to freeze entirely?
I imagine it is difficult for the ocean to freeze solid due to the low freezing point of salt water and the insulating effect of the formation of sea ice over the cool but still liquid ocean water.
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What did the water's edge look like on the Pacific coast of the Laurentide Ice Sheet?
I have seen news reports saying that in recent years many more scientists think that humans first arrived in the Americas by boat, along coast of Alaska and Canada (before they were able to come ...
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As small streams freeze solid, how can big rivers continue to carry water?
In areas of very cold temperatures (-20°C and below), it is not uncommon for small streams to freeze completely (as in, from top to bottom) and larger rivers to develop thick ice covers. However, ...
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Antarctic and arctic meltwater is "bad" because it's dark, but why is transparent liquid on white stuff so dark?
The Washington Post's Antarctic heat wave melted 20 percent of an island’s snow cover in days, caused melt ponds to proliferate includes the figure below of meltwater ponds on top of snow/ice.
The ...
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How does salting roads help prevent ice?
What kind of salt is used to keep roads from getting icy and how does it work?
Why does ice get thick in some places and other nearby places there is no ice?
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How salty can snow/sleet be?
Can enough salt particulates be in the air to create salty snow or ice that is undrinkable?
Will ice form in sub zero temperatures through condensation in salty air?
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Do icebergs have any impact on ecology?
Are icebergs neutral actors in the environment, or do they have any impact on the local ecology. Do they have any environmental impacts that might influence any part of the biosphere?
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What causes frozen "shooting water" spikes from ice covered water in the winter?
I have seen things like this appear once or twice on cold winter mornings, a frozen spike of water from an ice-covered container or very small body of water (puddle).
I found the photo below at Mel ...
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Simple way to understand these narrow frequency peaks in recently published "ice shelf singing"?
The Earther.Gizmodo.com article Scientists Discover a Weird Noise Coming From Antarctic Ice Shelf links to the American Geophysical Union video (an more importantly audio) (AGU) This is what an ...
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How would Earth map look like if all ice melts?
Is there somewhere a map which indicates which areas and cities become sea?
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How to tell if fog is made out of water droplets or ice crystals?
I understand that clouds can be made out of water droplets and/or ice crystals. And that fog is nothing else than low-lying clouds.
However, I've experienced fog in a wide ranges of temperatures. I ...
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Can anyone explain this frost phenomenon?
Look at this amazing frost I woke up to in Sooke, BC, Canada. This was so very cool to wake up to.
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What factors explain mountain glacier retreat variability?
It is well known that the majority of the world's mountain glaciers are retreating, but looking at a few LANDSAT images from the 1980s and today I am able to see glaciers that have retreated ...
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Why does glacier ice look blue?
The color of the ice observed in glaciers, icebergs and crevasses is often blue. However, ice cubes and industrial ice blocks are perfectly transparent or white if not.
So. Why does glacier ice look ...
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If there's more water in the atmosphere due to global warming, how are there fewer mountain glaciers?
As I understand it, moisture condenses at mountain tops to form the mountain glaciers that provide water. The mountain topography doesn't change much in the span of a few decades, so if there's more ...
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Why is my pond / lake melting when the temperature is still far below freezing?
I recently moved into a new house with a 2 acre lake behind it. We’ve had 15 consecutive days below freezing, and the last 12 of those have been below 20 degrees (Fahrenheit)! Six days ago I shoveled ...
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A few questions about glass
A glass, as I understand it, is a material whose solid phase is amorphous and which undergoes a glass transition when heated.
My train of thought - and therefore my questions - began with obsidian. ...
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Are there measurements or calculations that suggest atmospheric ice plates would be horizontal to within 0.1 degrees?
This question describes a recently released explanation for flashes of light seen at the sub-solar point above Earth from the DSCOVR satellite, which is located in a special orbit between the Earth ...
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During an average winter, what part (if any) of the Mississippi River becomes unnavigable?
What part of the Mississippi River becomes unnavigable (either freezes or accumulates too much ice to navigate) during an average winter? Perplexingly I could not find this through Google. I suppose ...
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Phase conversion of snow and ice due to irradiation versus melting
A few years ago another question touched on the relative rates of sublimation versus melting in terms of snow and snow pack disappearance.
What was unusual about the answer is the huge range of ...
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Reults of the glacials and interglacials of the ice age on the soil
I have read that the Earth has undergone five ice ages, the latest one is the Quaternary glaciation. I know that in the ice age there are glacial periods and interglacial periods, and we are currently ...
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Is this 70km crack in an ice shelf of Antarctica remarkable, or a regular occurrence?
I've just seen the LiveScience article 70-Mile-Long Crack Opens Up in Anatarctica. I'm not sure if the title is a bit sensational or not, the crack is in an ice shelf, not the continent of Antarctica.
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Please could you help me finding global warming video with ice melting in glass time messurment scene?
Few months ago I watched a video posted on reddit about climate change and in it there was scene showing glass of water with ice cubes.
They were measuring how long it takes for ice to melt and then ...
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Is glacier growing a hoax?
There is a wikipedia page on glacier growing, and also a Master thesis has apparently been written on the subject, investigating this practice in Northern Pakistan.
On the one hand, I have read (I'm ...
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How much of the ice on earth is floating?
How much of the ice on Earth is floating (such as icebergs, or perhaps all the ice up at the North Pole)?
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Do ice crystals form in running super-cold water?
Crystals of sugar form in hot saturated sugar solution as it cools down, due to excess sugar molecules not fitting in the solution and precipitating as crystals.
In a similar situation, if we have a ...
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How much of Earth's surface would be covered by water if all ice melted? [duplicate]
I'm trying to find how much water would be on the surface of Earth and how much surface would it cover (how much land will remain) if all the ice at the North and South Poles (and everywhere else) ...
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Why is the pond in my backyard not frozen when it is -15 °C (5 °F) outside?
I am in O'Fallon, Missouri and today it is -15 °C (5 °F) outside. I was taught water freezes at 0 °C (32 °F). I could understand if it was exactly 0 °C (32 °F) that the water might not be turning to ...
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Is this ice cover real - and what circumstances are required to make it?
The title says it all...
I assume it requires very slow freezing sheltered from the wind. Undercooled water, maybe?
A Reddit thread talks about Delaunay triangulation, but that does not explain how ...
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For what percentage of the earth's history has there been permanent ice?
Wikipedia comments here that "Permanent ice is actually a rare phenomenon in the history of the Earth, occurring only during the 20% of the time that the planet is under an icehouse effect." A "...
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How does the influence of clouds on climate vary with height?
It is generally assumed that clouds affect climate by reflecting sunlight back to space and therefore decreasing the total warming of the Earth. However, stratospheric ice clouds are said to have a ...
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What ice phenomenon are we seeing in this video?
I don't know what this YouTube video shows, but it appears to be half glacier and half "the blob." It almost appears to be "growing" although I assume it's being pushed somehow.
Can someone tell me ...
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The Role of the Antarctic Circumpolar Vortex & Ocean Current in Keeping Antarctica Frozen
An offshoot from the question how does Antarctica stay frozen?
Do the Anatarctic circumpolar vortex and circumpolar ocean current play a role in keeping Antarctica frozen?
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How does Antarctica stay frozen?
Antarctica receives heat from the Sun every day, so how does it stay frozen?
I have some thoughts about the answer but I'm unsure of whether it is correct; I hope people here can clarify.
My idea: ...
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Is there a name for this type of ice crystal?
Recently, I took the following picture:
I have read about this phenomenon and I think it is caused by water vapour that is pressed out of the ground and then freezes due to low temperature. However, ...
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Converting glacier volume to mass: what ice density to use?
The density of ice is 0.9167 g/cm3 at 0 °C (under atmospheric pressure).
I know of two factors that may influence this (are there more?)
Pressure
The glaciology faq (Common Questions and Myths ...
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How would an icicle "grow" upwards?
The other day a friend of my dad's showed him a picture of an icicle that appeared to be "growing" upwards out of a crack in a sidewalk. There were no roofs, overhangs or vehicles parked near by... It ...
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How deep is the permafrost in the Antarctic?
I tried in vain to find the answer to this question on the web, but all it would tell me was, "it is very deep", and "it is known as a thaw line rather than a frost line in the arctic and antarctic". ...
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