Morgan Abbou
2:32 AM - Public
Incredible Never-Before-Seen Ice Finger Of Death That Kills All In Sight
Watch the very impressive video of a Brinicle filmed by BBC in Antartica: http://goo.gl/LTfck
There are no limits to the powers of nature. We live on an amazing planet surrounded by incredible natural forces that are not only beautiful, but sometimes very frightening.
Scientists have never been able to see the terrifying phenomenon Ice Finger of Death before. At least not until now...
This creepy icy phenomenon is caused by cold, sinking brine, which is more dense than the rest of the sea water. It forms a brinicle as it contacts warmer water below the surface.
How does a Brinicle form?
Dr Mark Brandon, Polar oceanographer, The Open University explains:
Freezing sea water doesn't make ice like the stuff you grow in your freezer. Instead of a solid dense lump, it is more like a seawater-soaked sponge with a tiny network of brine channels within it.
In winter, the air temperature above the sea ice can be below -20C, whereas the sea water is only about -1.9C. Heat flows from the warmer sea up to the very cold air, forming new ice from the bottom. The salt in this newly formed ice is concentrated and pushed into the brine channels. And because it is very cold and salty, it is denser than the water beneath.
The result is the brine sinks in a descending plume. But as this extremely cold brine leaves the sea ice, it freezes the relatively fresh seawater it comes in contact with. This forms a fragile tube of ice around the descending plume, which grows into what has been called a brinicle.
Brinicles are found in both the Arctic and the Antarctic, but it has to be relatively calm for them to grow as long as the ones the Frozen Planet team observed.Collapse this post
Watch the very impressive video of a Brinicle filmed by BBC in Antartica: http://goo.gl/LTfck
There are no limits to the powers of nature. We live on an amazing planet surrounded by incredible natural forces that are not only beautiful, but sometimes very frightening.
Scientists have never been able to see the terrifying phenomenon Ice Finger of Death before. At least not until now...
This creepy icy phenomenon is caused by cold, sinking brine, which is more dense than the rest of the sea water. It forms a brinicle as it contacts warmer water below the surface.
How does a Brinicle form?
Dr Mark Brandon, Polar oceanographer, The Open University explains:
Freezing sea water doesn't make ice like the stuff you grow in your freezer. Instead of a solid dense lump, it is more like a seawater-soaked sponge with a tiny network of brine channels within it.
In winter, the air temperature above the sea ice can be below -20C, whereas the sea water is only about -1.9C. Heat flows from the warmer sea up to the very cold air, forming new ice from the bottom. The salt in this newly formed ice is concentrated and pushed into the brine channels. And because it is very cold and salty, it is denser than the water beneath.
The result is the brine sinks in a descending plume. But as this extremely cold brine leaves the sea ice, it freezes the relatively fresh seawater it comes in contact with. This forms a fragile tube of ice around the descending plume, which grows into what has been called a brinicle.
Brinicles are found in both the Arctic and the Antarctic, but it has to be relatively calm for them to grow as long as the ones the Frozen Planet team observed.Collapse this post
