Spirals of Ice Extruded from Steel Posts Dr. James
R. Carter, Professor Emeritus Illinois
State University, Normal, IL 61790-4400 |
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In January 2007 I was introduced to some interesting
photos of ice growing from a metal fence on Vancouver Island, British
Columbia, Canada. I posted photos of this
ice and have subsequently received photos from two persons showing
spirals of ice being extruded from steel posts. Their photos
show ice in the form of rods that curve into spirals. Beautiful
and natural. From a stairway in SW England The first set of photos were taken by Kath
Tooley in southwestern England. She found these spirals on a set of
steel stairs. In this photo I see three spirals extending from the
junctions of three vertical pipes and the handrail. Note that not every
pipe junction produced ice. The photo below is a close-up from the
photo above which gives a better view of the rod of ice. Note the hole
near the top of the vertical pipe behind the spiral, but no ice is emerging
from that hole. The fact that this pipe has a hole drilled in it
tells us something about these pipes. I believe the photo below shows the spiral
of ice that is in the middle of the three spirals in the top photo.
Below are two photos showing the close-up
of two of the spirals. I believe these are different spirals. It
is my interpretation that the ice is quite clear and translucent -- letting
light pass through it. But, it is not
transparent because you cannot see the pipes through the rods of ice. How
long did these spirals last in the Sun? And from a playground in Moscow The second set of photos were taken by Alexander
Nevzorov in Moscow, Russia. In this case the steel
pipes have been bent and welded into a climbing apparatus for children. The
many colors of the pipes reflect the cheerful nature of the apparatus.
But it was a gray day when Alexander found this spiral of ice extending down
from a red pipe. There is a thin layer of snow, which looks to be very
fresh. I suspect this was the only spiral of ice
on this complex of pipes. I can see nothing more and Alexander did not
tell me anymore.
The other two photos I received show the
spiral of ice extending down from the junction of the small red pipe welded
to the larger blue pipe. In the photos below I show a close up of the junction which reveals two holes, one
producing the larger rod of ice which made the spiral and a small hole which
produced a thin rod of ice which is straight.
As I reviewed these two sets of photos,
I realized they are not dissimilar to ice shown in the
photos from Sheryl Terris and some of the ice I
grew from pipes. The examples from England and Moscow are natural
and as such are particularly attractive. From my many
photos I found these examples of rods of ice being extruded from
holes drilled into steel pipes. In the photo on the left I had two
holes in the side of a pipe. On the right the hole was drilled into the
cast iron cap. This ice is in the form of a rod
and shows the tendency to curve into a spiral. But these
ice rods are quite milky and not translucent. Why the
differences? The blue background is a large piece of
cloth of uniform color. As such it makes a good background for
photos. All too frequently the mix of objects in the background detract
from the focus of the photo. Thank goodness for the Internet and digital cameras
for they let us exchange information about these attractive ice
formations. Please take on the task of looking for ice when the
freeze/thaw processes are underway. Feel free to contact me at jrcarter@ilstu.edu
if you see any ice of this nature in your outings. And note in
these cases the ice is found in the as-built environment -- not on
plants. Return to the master page of Diurnal
Freeze/Thaw Ice Formations . |
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