Ice. Sea ice Ice ages on Earth
Many of these natural wonders can only be seen by scientists, as they are located in cold, sparsely populated areas of our planet.
This Blue River is a kayaking paradise in Greenland. The melting Petermann Glacier fills the low-lying areas with perfectly clear blue water. This phenomenon occurs seasonally, causing the river to change its shape. The bright blue color is unique to glacial water in these regions.
Svalbard, meaning "cold coast", is an archipelago in the Arctic that makes up the northernmost part of Norway, as well as Europe. This place is located approximately 650 kilometers north of continental Europe, halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. Despite being so close to the North Pole, Svalbard is comparatively warm thanks to the heating effect of the Gulf Stream, which makes it habitable. Actually,
Svalbard is the northernmost permanently inhabited region on the planet. The islands of Svalbard cover a total area of 62,050 square meters. km, almost 60% of which is covered by glaciers, many of which go directly into the sea. The giant Broswellbryn Glacier, located on Nordaustlandet, the second largest island in the archipelago, stretches for as much as 200 kilometers. The 20-meter icy edges of this glacier are crisscrossed by hundreds of waterfalls. These waterfalls can only be seen in warmer months.
Crystal Caves
This glacier cave is the result of glacial melting, when rain and meltwater on the surface of the glacier are directed into streams that enter the glacier through cracks. The flow of water gradually melts the hole, making its way to lower areas, forming long crystal caves. Fine sediments in the water along with it give the meltwater stream a dirty color, while the top of the cave appears dark blue.
Due to the rapid movement of the glacier, approximately 1 m per day over the uneven terrain, this ice cave turns into a deep vertical crevice at its end. This allows daylight to enter the ice cave from both ends. The cave is accessible through a 7-meter entrance on the coastline. At the end it narrows to a difficult narrow passage, no more than a meter high. Ice caves are located in unstable areas and can collapse at any time.
They are only safe to enter in winter, when cold temperatures harden the ice. Despite this, the constant sound of crunching ice in the cave can be heard. This is not because everything is about to collapse, but because the cave is moving along with the glacier itself.
Every time the glacier moves a millimeter, extremely loud sounds can be heard. Among the attractions of Iceland, caves are especially popular.
Briksdal Glacier
The Briksdalsbreen glacier or Briksdal is one of the most accessible and best known branches of the Jostedalsbreen glacier. This place is located in Norway and is part of Jostedalsbreen National Park. The glacier ends in a small glacial lake, which is located 346 meters above sea level. Visitors from all over the world come to see the beautiful outcrop of the Briksdal Glacier, picturesquely set among waterfalls and high peaks. With proper equipment and experienced guides, visitors can enjoy a completely safe yet incredibly exciting excursion.
Bearsday Canyon
Bearsday Canyon, carved by meltwater, is 45 meters deep. This photo was taken in 2008. Along the rim of Greenland's Ice Canyon, lines on the wall show the stratigraphic layers of ice and snow laid down over the years. The black layer at the base of the channel is cryoconite, a powdery, blown dust that is deposited and deposited on snow, glaciers or ice sheets.
Elephant Foot Glacier
Arctic Elephant Foot Glacier found in northern Greenland. The gray zone at low elevation on the glacier is etched with meltwater channels clearly separated from the white surface accumulation zone above. It is not difficult to understand where this glacier got its name. This unique glacier is located in an amazing geographical location on the northeast coast of Greenland.
Frozen Wave
This unique frozen wave is located in Antarctica. It was discovered by American scientist Tony Travoillon in 2007. These photographs do not actually show the giant wave, somehow frozen in the process. The formation contains blue ice, and this is strong evidence that it was not created instantly from a wave.
Blue ice is created by compressing trapped air bubbles. Ice appears blue because when light passes through the layers, blue light is reflected back and red light is absorbed. Thus, the dark blue color suggests that the ice formed slowly over time rather than instantly. Subsequent thawing and refreezing over many seasons gave the formation a smooth, wave-like appearance.
striped iceberg
Most often, icebergs have blue and green stripes, but they can be brown. This phenomenon often occurs in the Southern Ocean. Striped icebergs with multiple stripes of color, including yellow and brown, are quite common in cold waters around Antarctica.
Colored icebergs are formed when large chunks of ice break off an ice shelf and end up in the sea. Because glaciers are made up of snow falling on Antarctica over thousands of years, the ice is made up of fresh water. Thus, it turns out that floating fresh ice interacts with salt water. Sea water is in contact with the supercooled glacier and also freezes, as if covering it with a crust.
This top layer of ice, formed from seawater, contains organic matter and minerals. When caught by the waves and carried away by the wind, icebergs can be painted with amazing bands of color in a variety of shapes and structures. The iceberg appears white due to tiny bubbles trapped in the ice and scattered light. The blue areas are created when a crack in the ice sheet fills with meltwater, which quickly freezes.
In this case, the bubbles do not have time to form. When the water is rich in algae, the stripe may be colored green, as well as other shades.
Ice towers
Hundreds of ice towers can be seen at the top of Mount Erebus (3,800 m). They look like one-day stubble on a giant's face. The permanently active volcano may be the only place in Antarctica where fire and ice meet, mix and create something unique. The towers can reach 20 meters in height and appear almost alive, releasing plumes of steam into the southern polar sky. Some of the volcanic steam freezes, depositing on the inside of the towers, expanding and expanding them.
frozen waterfall
Fang is a waterfall located near Vail, Colorado. A huge column of ice forms from this waterfall only during exceptionally cold winters, when frost creates an ice column that grows up to 50 meters in height. Frozen Fang Falls has a base that reaches 8 meters in width.
Penitentes
Penitentes are amazing ice spikes formed naturally on the plains in the high altitude regions of the Andes range, at an altitude of over 4000 meters above sea level. These ice spikes reach variable heights from a few centimeters to 5 meters, giving the impression of an icy forest. The tips of their blades always point towards the sun. they begin to slowly form as the ice melts with the early rays of the sun. The Andean people attributed this phenomenon to the fast winds in the area, which is actually only part of the process.
According to recent scientific observations, the sunlight that falls on the ice heats it up, furthermore, some of the light is trapped in the ice, which leads to uneven melting of the ice and those parts of the ice that do not melt form strange shaped statues known as Penitentes.
Kungur Ice Cave, Russia
The Kungur Ice Cave is one of the largest caves in the world and the most amazing wonders of the Urals, which is located on the outskirts of the city of Kungur in the Perm region. It is believed that the cave is more than 10 thousand years old.
Its total length reaches 5700 meters, inside the cave there are 48 grottoes and 70 underground lakes, up to 2 meters deep. The temperature inside the ice cave varies from -10 to -2 degrees Celsius.
, cal/g
0.51 (0°C)
79,69
677
Decreases greatly with decreasing temperature
Thermal expansion coefficient, 1/°C
9.1 10 -5 (0°C)
Thermal conductivity,cal/( cm sec··°C)
4.99 10 -3
Refractive index:
For an ordinary beam
For an extraordinary ray
1.309 (-3°C)
1.3104 (-3°C)
Specific electrical conductivity,ohm -1 ·cm -1
10 -9 (0°C)
Apparent activation energy 11kcal/mol
Surface high electrical conductivity,ohm -1
10 -10 (-11°C)
Apparent activation energy 32kcal/mol
Young's modulus,dyn/cm
9·10 10 (-5°C)
Polycrystalline ice
Resistance,Mn/m 2 :
Crushing
The gap
Slice
2,5
1,11
0,57
Polycrystalline ice
Polycrystalline ice
Polycrystalline ice
Average effective viscosity,pz
10 14
Polycrystalline ice
Exponent of power law flow
Activation energy during deformation and mechanical relaxation,kcal/mol
11,44-21,3
Linearly increases by 0.0361kcal/( mole°C) from 0 to 273.16 K
Note. 1 cal/(g× °C)=4.186kjl( kg(TO); 1 ohm -1 × cm -1 =100 sim/m; 1 dyn/cm=10 -3 n/m; 1 cal/( cm( sec× °C)=418.68Tue/( m(TO); 1 pz=10 -1 n( sec/m 2 .
Table 2. - Amount, distribution and lifetime of ice 1
| Distribution area | Average end | Weight growth rate, g/year | Average life time, year |
||||
| underground ice | |||||||
| sea ice | |||||||
| Snow cover | |||||||
| Icebergs | |||||||
| Atmospheric ice | |||||||
Due to the wide distribution of water and ice on the earth's surface, the sharp difference in some of the properties of ice from the properties of other substances plays an important role in natural processes. Due to its lower density than water, ice forms a floating cover on the surface of the water, protecting rivers and reservoirs from freezing to the bottom. The relationship between steady-state flow velocity and stress for polycrystalline ice is hyperbolic; when approximately described by a power equation, the exponent increases as the voltage increases; in addition, the flow speed is directly proportional to the activation energy and inversely proportional to the absolute temperature, so that as the temperature decreases, the ice approaches an absolutely solid body. On average, at temperatures close to melting, the fluidity of ice is 10 6 times higher than that of rocks. Thanks to fluidity, ice does not accumulate indefinitely, but flows from those parts of the earth's surface where more of it falls than melts (see Glaciers). Due to the very high reflectivity of ice (0.45) and especially snow (up to 0.95), the area covered by them - on average about 72 million km 2 per year in the high and middle latitudes of both hemispheres - receives solar heat 65% less than normal and is a powerful source of cooling the earth’s surface, which largely determines the modern latitudinal climatic zonation. In summer, in the polar regions, solar radiation is greater than in the equatorial zone, however, the temperature remains low, since a significant part of the absorbed heat is spent on melting ice, which has a very high heat of melting.
Ices II, III and V are preserved for a long time at atmospheric pressure if the temperature does not exceed -170°C. When heated to approximately -150°C, they turn into cubic ice (ice Ic), not shown in the diagram because it is unknown whether it is a stable phase. Dr. The method for producing ice Ic is the condensation of water vapor onto a substrate cooled to -120°C. When vapor condenses on a colder substrate, amorphous ice is formed. Both of these forms of ice can spontaneously transform into hexagonal ice I, and the faster the higher the temperature.
Ice IV is a metastable phase in the stability zone of ice V. Ice IV forms more easily and is possibly stable if pressure is applied to heavy water. The melting curve of ice VII was studied up to a pressure of 20 GN/m2 (200 thousand kgf/cm2). At this pressure, ice VII melts at a temperature of 400°C. Ice VIII is a low-temperature ordered form of Ice VII. Ice IX is a metastable phase that appears when ice III is supercooled and essentially represents its low-temperature form. In general, the phenomena of supercooling and metastable equilibria are very characteristic of phases formed by water. Some of the metastable equilibrium lines are indicated by dotted lines on the diagram.
Rice. 2. Scheme of the structure of ice I (oxygen atoms and directions of hydrogen bonds are shown) in two projections.
Info lesson on the topic PARONYMS ICE - ICE
Info lesson plan:
1. Lexical meaning of paronyms icy - icy
2.Examples of phrases with paronyms ice
3.Examples of sentences with a paronym ice
4.Examples of phrases with paronyms ice
5.Examples of sentences with a paronym ice
1. LEXICAL MEANING OF THE PARONYMS ICE - ICE
ICE- 1) located, located on ice;
2) occurring in ice.
ICE- 1) consisting of ice, covered with ice;
2) very cold (cold as ice);
3) (transfer.) extremely reserved, contemptuously cold, destructive.
2. EXAMPLES OF PHRASES WITH THE PARONYM - ICE
1) ice continent
2) ice palace
3) ice stadium
4) ice airport
5) ice trek
6) ice road
7) ice track
8) ice rink
9) ice field
10)ice expedition
11) Battle on the Ice
12) ice fun
13) ice mode
14) ice barrier
15) ice jams
16) ice barrier
17)ice blockage
18) ice crossing
3.EXAMPLES OF SENTENCES WITH THE PARONYM - ICE
1) The water temperature of the Barents Sea at different depths throughout the year is not constant, as the amount of warm water brought by the North Cape Current. It varies depending on the season of the year. This also affects ice sea mode.
2) When meeting with ice In the field, the icebreaker “crawls” with its bow onto the edge of the ice and breaks it.
3) While exploring Antarctica, Captain Nemo ends up in ice captivity.
4) The first Heroes of the Soviet Union were the Soviet pilots who saved the expedition of the Chelyuskin steamship, which was caught in ice captivity.
5) Rising up to 4 km in height above sea level ice Antarctica shield.
6) “The Road of Life” - ice
8)Work ice roads, the “road of life,” were hampered by enemy aircraft.
9) Communication with Leningrad was maintained only by air and through Lake Ladoga, along which it was laid in winter ice the route is the legendary “road of life”.
10) In the center of Russia, along the mighty Yenisei River, lies the Siberian land - a region that is called taiga, although it is mountainous, and tundra, and arctic, and ice.
11)Ice the drift lasted 4 months.
12) People say: November is leafy, semi-winter, ice blacksmith.
13) Classes are held in the gym and on ice site.
14)Ice regime plays a big role in the life of Lake Baikal.
15)Ice The river regime is very complex.
16) Even in Antarctica there are people who study ice cover, relief and climate of the continent.
17) In 1821, Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen, together with Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev, penetrated ice barrier surrounding the South Pole.
18) Glacier - ice cap on the tops of the mountains.
19) In the northern part of the Atlantic, where there are busy sea routes, a special ice patrol.
20) Bobsleigh is a sport that is a high-speed descent from the mountains on specially equipped ice tracks on steerable bob sleighs.
21) In the summer of 1956, as part of the Third International Geophysical Year, a high-latitude Arctic expedition was carried out to study the strait between Greenland and Spitsbergen by scientists from the USSR, Sweden and Norway. The work program provided for the landing of an international group of scientists on ice the dome of Northern Spitsbergen, and an MI-4 helicopter, commanded by test pilot R.I. Kaprelyan, was assigned to perform this task.
22)Ice the shell on Baikal lasts from 4.5 to 6 months.
23) Ice hockey is a sports team game on ice
24) In winter, where it works ice crossing, they put up signs about the permissible load on this road.
25) In 1242, at sunrise, a famous battle took place on the ice of Lake Peipus, which became known as Ice carnage.
4. EXAMPLES OF PHRASES WITH THE PARONYM - ICE
1) ice zone
2) ice continent
3) icy peaks
4) ice block
5) ice mountain
6) ice shore
7) ice track
8)ice wave
9) ice cover
10) ice edge
11)ice world
12)ice cave
13) icy wind
14) ice frost
15) ice water
16) freezing rain
17) ice pellets
18) ice crumbs
19) ice icicle
20)ice crystal
21) ice crust
22) ice ball
23) ice rod
24) icy tone
25) icy look
26) ice reception
27) icy fingers
5.EXAMPLES OF SENTENCES WITH THE PARONYM - ICE
1) Antarctica - ice mainland.
2)B icy Antarctica's cover contains about 80% of all fresh water on Earth and 90% of the volume of all natural ice on the planet.
3) Fish splash in ice water.
4)Icy The surface of the pond had been covered with a thick layer of snow since the beginning of winter.
5) A boy on a sled went down from ice slides.
6) The waters of the mighty ocean are frozen in ice. The endless desert looks like a dead white desert icy fields with frozen blocks of ice. They are called hummocks. (N.I. Sladkov. From north to south...)
7) It blows from the north ice wind.
8) The face is covered at one point ice crust, and icicles grow on the eyebrows and beard.
9)He headed around this giant icy fields, trying to find a passage in the ice, and as a result completely went around this ice array.
10) Kungurskaya icy The cave is a unique natural monument.
11) Kungurskaya icy the cave was formed on the site of the Great Perm Sea 10 - 12 thousand years ago.
12)Icy the surface of East Antarctica is flatter and higher (up to 4000 meters).
13) If the main difficulty in studying the relief icy Since the domes are subject to climatic conditions that make it difficult to carry out geodetic work and aerial photography missions, to study the subglacial topography one must also learn to see through the ice. Only geophysics can do this. Therefore, she has the main word about the structure of Antarctica.
14) From small ones icy Crystals in the clouds form snowflakes.
15) The Arctic is divided into two zones: icy zone and zone of arctic deserts.
16)Icy zone is the seas of the Arctic Ocean along with the islands.
17) Located on the Arctic islands icy zone.
18)South ice The tundra zone stretches along the shores of the northern seas.
19) Sokuy is one of the types of ice on Lake Baikal. Formed in the initial phase of lake freezing in the form of a thin ice Protect the edges, or in the fall from splashing waves on rocks and stones.
20) Snowflake is ice crystal with hexagonal symmetry.
21) Snow is precipitation in the form icy crystals.
22) Fluffy icy frost covered the branches.
23)Gerda managed to melt icy Kai's heart.
24) There is a bag hanging outside the window ice,
It is full of drops and smells like spring. (Icicle)
25) High sheer cliffs icy the shores represent an insurmountable barrier.
27)B icy Antarctica contains 80% of all fresh water on the planet. Continental surface icy The shield is covered with thick snow.
28) In March-April 2002 from icy An iceberg more than 70 km long separated from the Antarctic shield, which is very rare and is considered as one of the evidence of modern climate warming.
29)And whoever visited there [Antarctica] once will always remember the great silence ice the desert, painted in a gentle glow in the morning hours, lilac and pink tones of the bed, cold flashes and aurora, cozy lights of winter quarters covered with snowdrifts. (According to A.M. Gusev)
30) How can you use fresh water contained in glaciers? The project for transporting icebergs to countries with arid climates began to be developed back in the 20th century. Several methods have been proposed to solve this problem. One of them is crushing the iceberg on site, loading the resulting ice crumbs into tankers and further transportation to their destination. The advantage of this method is that in this case you do not have to worry about melting - the resulting water will splash around reliably in the tanker. The obvious disadvantage is the high cost.
31) Winter is a wonderful time of year. Her icy beauty enchants and evokes admiration.
32) Lovers of swimming in winter ice water are called walruses.
33)B ice
34)Ice
35) On the last day of Maslenitsa, women, celebrating the end of spinning, rode with ice mountains on the bottoms of the spinning wheels, and it was believed that the further they travel, the longer the flax will grow.
36)Ice the cover makes life difficult for underwater inhabitants.
37) The polar bear inhabits icy expanses and islands of the Polar Basin south to the northern coasts of Siberia and North America.
38) In what fairy tale did the evil queen take the boy to her ice castle?
39) The polar bear is often called the tireless wanderer of the Arctic. Most often he can be seen slowly wandering among endless snow fields or icy hummocks. This huge beast has muscles of iron. It is protected from the cold by a thick layer of fat and white or slightly golden skin with thick fur. Even the soles of their paws are protected by fur. The beast is capable of swimming ice water of the open ocean to cover distances of tens of kilometers.
40)Igloo - ice home of the indigenous people of northern North America.
6.TESTS
1)ice wind
2)icy expedition
3)icy frost
4)icy water
One of the phrases below uses the highlighted word INCORRECTLY. Find the error and fix it. Write the number of the phrase and the correct word.
1)ice hike
2)icy icicle
3)ice crystal
4)icy crust
One of the phrases below uses the highlighted word INCORRECTLY. Find the error and fix it. Write the number of the phrase and the correct word.
1)ice rain
2)icy cereal
3)icy chit
4)Ice carnage
One of the phrases below uses the highlighted word INCORRECTLY. Find the error and fix it. Write the number of the phrase and the correct word.
1)ice blockage
2)ice crossing
3)ice sight
4)ice mainland
1) Ice hockey is a sports team game on ice court with a puck and sticks.
2) Lovers of swimming in winter ice water are called walruses.
3)B ice Lichens, mosses, and polar poppies grow in the area.
4)Ice the wind rushes overhead.
One of the sentences below uses the highlighted word INCORRECTLY. Find the error and fix it. Write the sentence number and the correct word.
1) Snow is precipitation in the form icy crystals.
2) Fluffy icy frost covered the branches.
3) “The Road of Life” - icy road through Ladoga in the winter of 1941-1943.
4)Gerda managed to melt icy Kai's heart.
7. ANSWERS
|
Test task no. |
No. of phrase or sentence | |
|
ice |
About −1.8 °C.
An assessment of the amount (density) of sea ice is given in points - from 0 (clear water) to 10 (solid ice).
Properties
The most important properties of sea ice are porosity and salinity, which determine its density (from 0.85 to 0.94 g/cm³). Due to the low density of ice, ice floes rise above the surface of the water by 1/7 - 1/10 of their thickness. Sea ice begins to melt at temperatures above −2.3°C. Compared to freshwater, it is more difficult to break into pieces and is more elastic.
Salinity
Density
Sea ice is a complex physical body consisting of fresh ice crystals, brine, air bubbles and various impurities. The ratio of the components depends on the conditions of ice formation and subsequent ice processes and affects the average density of ice. Thus, the presence of air bubbles ( porosity) significantly reduces the density of ice. Ice salinity has less of an effect on density than porosity. With an ice salinity of 2 ppm and zero porosity, the ice density is 922 kilograms per cubic meter, and with a porosity of 6 percent it decreases to 867. At the same time, with zero porosity, an increase in salinity from 2 to 6 ppm leads to an increase in ice density only from 922 to 928 kilograms per cubic meter.
Thermophysical properties
The color of sea ice in large massifs varies from white to brown.
White ice formed from snow and has many air bubbles or brine cells.
Young sea ice of a granular structure with significant amounts of air and brine often has green color.
Multi-year hummocky ice, from which impurities have been squeezed out, and young ice, which froze under calm conditions, often have light blue or blue color. Glacier ice and icebergs are also blue. The needle-like structure of the crystals is clearly visible in blue ice.
Brown or yellowish ice is of river or coastal origin, it contains admixtures of clay or humic acids.
Initial types of ice (ice lard, slush) have dark grey color, sometimes with a steely tint. As the thickness of the ice increases, its color becomes lighter, gradually turning white. When melting, thin pieces of ice turn gray again.
If the ice contains a large amount of mineral or organic impurities (plankton, aeolian suspensions, bacteria), its color may change to red, pink, yellow, up to black.
Due to the property of ice to retain long-wave radiation, it is capable of creating a greenhouse effect, which leads to heating of the water underneath it.
Mechanical properties
The mechanical properties of ice mean its ability to resist deformation.
Typical types of ice deformation: tension, compression, shear, bending. There are three stages of ice deformation: elastic, elastic-plastic, and destruction stage. Taking into account the mechanical properties of ice is important when determining the optimal course of icebreakers, as well as when placing cargo on ice floes, polar stations, and when calculating the strength of a ship’s hull.
Conditions of education
When sea ice forms, small drops of salt water appear between entirely fresh ice crystals, which gradually flow down. The freezing point and the temperature of greatest density of sea water depend on its salinity. Sea water, the salinity of which is below 24.695 ppm (the so-called brackish water), when cooled, first reaches the highest density, like fresh water, and with further cooling and without stirring it quickly reaches its freezing point. If the salinity of the water is above 24.695 ppm (salt water), it cools to the freezing point with a constant increase in density with continuous mixing (exchange between the upper cold and lower warmer layers of water), which does not create conditions for rapid cooling and freezing of water, that is, when Under the same weather conditions, salty ocean water freezes later than brackish water.
Classifications
Sea ice in its own way location and mobility divided into three types:
- floating (drifting) ice,
By stages of ice development There are several so-called initial types of ice (in order of formation time):
- intra-water (including bottom or anchor), formed at a certain depth and objects located in the water under conditions of turbulent mixing of water.
Further types of ice in time of formation - nilas ice:
- nilas, formed on a calm sea surface from fat and snow (dark nilas up to 5 cm thick, light nilas up to 10 cm thick) - a thin elastic crust of ice that easily bends on water or swell and forms jagged layers when compressed;
- flasks formed in desalinated water in a calm sea (mainly in bays, near river mouths) - a fragile shiny crust of ice that easily breaks under the influence of waves and wind;
- pancake ice formed during weak waves from icy fat, snow or slush, or as a result of a break as a result of waves of a flask, nilas or so-called young ice. They are round-shaped ice plates from 30 cm to 3 m in diameter and 10-15 cm thick with raised edges due to rubbing and impacts of ice floes.
The further stage of development of ice formation is young ice, which are divided into gray (10-15 cm thick) and gray-white (15-30 cm thick) ice.
Sea ice that develops from young ice and is no more than one winter old is called first-year ice. This first-year ice can be:
- thin first-year ice - white ice 30-70 cm thick,
- average thickness - 70-120 cm,
- thick first-year ice - more than 120 cm thick.
If sea ice has been subject to melting for at least one year, it is classified as old ice. Old ice is divided into:
- residual first-year ice - ice that has not melted in summer and is again in the freezing stage,
- two-year-old - lasted more than one year (thickness reaches 2 m),
- multi-year - old ice 3 m thick or more, which has survived melting for at least two years. The surface of such ice is covered with numerous irregularities and mounds formed as a result of repeated melting. The lower surface of perennial ice is also highly uneven and varied in shape.
The thickness of multi-year ice in
.Ice supplies the planet with a huge amount of fresh water and keeps global water levels in the world's oceans from rising catastrophically.
In addition, ice contains useful information about the past of our planet, and also tells us about the future of the climate on Earth.
Here are the most interesting facts about ice on Earth and beyond:
Ice names
1. Ice has many different names.
Sea ice alone has several names, not to mention the ice in the Arctic and Antarctic. Shallow ice, inland ice, nilas, and pancake ice are just some of what can be found in the Arctic and Antarctica.
If you are sailing near the north or south pole, then you better know where the iceberg is, and where the bottom of the fast ice is (ice attached to the shore or bottom), what is the difference between a hummock and a hummock, and between a floating ice floe and a floberg (floating mountain) .
But if you think that these words are more than enough for you, then you will be surprised to learn that the Inupiat people of Alaska have 100 different names for ice, which is logical for a people who live in cold places.
freezing rain
2. Freezing rain occurs when snow passes through warm and cold layers of the atmosphere.
Freezing rain can be deadly. Here's how it occurs: snow enters a warm layer of the atmosphere and melts, turning into raindrops, then passes through a cold layer of air. Raindrops do not have time to freeze when passing through this cold layer, but when they collide with a cold surface, these drops instantly turn into ice.
As a result, a thick layer of ice forms on the roads, and everything around turns into an ice skating rink. Ice also accumulates on electrical wires, which can cause them to break. Ice accumulated on branches can break them, which is very dangerous for people.
Today there are laboratories in which scientists are trying to predict where and how this rain might strike. One such laboratory is in New Hampshire, where scientists create simulations of freezing rain.
Dry ice
3. Dry ice is not made of water.
In fact, it is frozen carbon dioxide, which can change its state from solid to gas at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, bypassing the liquid phase. Dry ice is quite useful for keeping some items cold, as it freezes at - 78.5 degrees Celsius.
Invention of the refrigerator
4. Ice helped people invent the refrigerator.
Thousands of years ago, people already used ice to keep food fresh. In the 1800s, people cut ice cubes from frozen lakes, brought them back and stored them in special isolated rooms and cellars. By the end of the 19th century, people were using household ice boxes for food, which later evolved into refrigerators.
Not only did ice make life easier for individual homes, but it also played a key role in the mass production and distribution of meat and other perishable foods. This all eventually led to urbanization and the development of many other industries.
By the end of the century, pollution and mountains of waste dumped into wastewater had contaminated many natural ice reserves. This problem led to the development of the modern electric refrigerator. The very first commercially successful refrigerator was released in 1927 in the USA.
Greenland Ice Sheet
5. The Greenland Ice Sheet contains 10% of the world's glacial ice on the planet, and it is melting quickly.
The ice sheet is the world's second largest ice mass after the Antarctic Ice Sheet, and contains enough water to raise global sea levels by at least 6 meters. If every glacier and ice sheet on Earth melts, the water level will rise by more than 80 meters.
According to a 2016 study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, Greenland's ice sheet is losing 8,000 tons every second. Scientists have been studying this ice sheet for several years to better understand how it responds to climate change on Earth.
Icebergs and glaciers
6. Icebergs and glaciers are not only white.
White light is made up of many colors, each with its own wavelength. As snow accumulates on the iceberg, the air bubbles in the snow compress, allowing more light to penetrate into the ice than is reflected from the bubbles and small ice crystals.
This is where the trick is: colors with longer wavelengths, such as red and yellow, are absorbed by the ice, while colors with shorter wavelengths, such as blue and green, reflect the light. This is why icebergs and glaciers have a bluish-greenish tint.
Ice Ages on Earth
7. There have been many ice ages on Earth.
Often when we hear about an ice age, we only imagine one such period. In fact, even before us, there were several ice ages on the planet, and they were all very severe. Scientists suggest that at some point in time our planet was completely frozen, and scientists call this hypothesis "Snowball Earth."
There are suggestions that some ice ages were the result of the evolution of new forms of life - plants, as well as unicellular and multicellular organisms - which contributed to changes in the concentration of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere so much that this led to a change in the greenhouse effect.
The Earth will continue to go through cycles of warm and cold periods. However, at this stage, scientists predict that over the next 100 years, the rate of warming will be at least 20 times higher than the rate of previous warming periods.
Fresh water on Earth
8. More than 2/3 of the fresh water on Earth is stored in glaciers.
Melting glaciers will not only lead to rising sea levels, but will also lead to a significant reduction in the level of fresh water supplies and its quality. In addition, the melting of glaciers will lead to a problem of energy supply, since many hydroelectric power stations will not be able to work properly - due to the melting, many rivers will change their courses. In some regions, such as South America and the Himalayas, these problems are already being felt.
Ice planets
9. Ice is not only on Earth.
Water consists of hydrogen and oxygen, and these elements are abundant in our solar system. Depending on their proximity to the Sun, different planets in our solar system have different amounts of water. For example, Jupiter and Saturn are far from the Sun, and their moons have much more water than Earth, Mars and Mercury, where high temperatures make it harder for hydrogen and oxygen to create water molecules.
Europa is a satellite of Jupiter
The distant planets have several frozen satellites, one of which is called Europa - the 6th satellite of Jupiter. This satellite is covered with several layers of ice, the total thickness of which is several kilometers. Cracks and undulations were discovered on the surface of Europa, which were likely formed by waves of the underwater ocean.
Enceladus - Saturn satellite
Large reserves of water on the Europa satellite have led scientists to assume that there may be life on it.
Ice volcanoes (cryovolcanoes)
10. There is such a thing as an ice volcano (cryovolcano)
Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons, boasts one very interesting feature. Its north pole area contains cryovolcanoes, an exotic type of geyser that spews ice instead of lava.
This occurs when ice deep below the surface heats up and turns to steam, after which it erupts into the cold atmosphere of the satellite in the form of ice particles.
Life on Mars
11. Ice on Mars could help reveal life on the Red Planet.
According to satellite information, there is ice on Mars (both dry and frozen water). This ice is found in the Red Planet's polar caps and permafrost areas.
Ice reserves on Mars may provide an answer to the question that has been debated for many years - whether life can be supported on Mars.
On future missions to Mars, scientists will try to find out whether water reserves, possibly coming from underground glaciers, can support life.
Frozen human mummy
12. The best preserved mummies were frozen.
La Donzella
From the Andes to the Alps, frozen human remains are allowing scientists to learn more about how people lived hundreds and thousands of years ago. One of the best-preserved remains is that of a 15-year-old Incan boy named La Doncella, or the Virgin.
Presumably the girl was sacrificed about 500 years ago, at the top of the Llullaillaco volcano, which is located in Argentina. The girl was found along with other children. It is believed that she died from hypothermia.
Ötzi
Another frozen mummy - Ötzi - belongs to the Chalcolithic era. This ice mummy of a man was found in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps near the Austrian border with Italy. The mummies are estimated to be 5,300 years old.
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