Understanding Ice
Friday, July 2, 2010 - 14:00
in Earth & Climate
Understanding Ice Ice is just frozen water, right? Wrong! Now you will perhaps inquire with astonishment how it is possible that ice, which is the most brittle and fragile of substances, can flow in the glacier like a viscous mass; and you may perhaps be disposed to regard this as one of the wildest and most improbable statements that have ever been made by philosophers.Hermann von Helmholtz, 1865 It's very difficult to make absolutely pure ice, even in the lab. Most especially in natural conditions, when ice forms it includes all sorts of chemicals and particles - and they affect its properties significantly, as does the water itself and the bottom topography. read more