Science Daily December 5, 2022
Icicles that have grown from slightly impure water develop ripples around their circumference. The ripples have a near-universal wavelength and are thought to be the result of a morphological instability. Researchers in Canada used laboratory-grown icicles and various species of impurities, including fluorescent dye, to show that a certain fraction of the impurities remains trapped inside the icicle, forming inclusions within the ice. The inclusions were organized into chevron patterns aligned with the peaks of the ripples. Within the chevrons, there was a substructure of crescent-shaped structures. They also examined the crystal grain structure of laboratory icicles with and without impurities. They presented a detailed study of these growth patterns in the interior of icicles and discussed their implications for the mechanism of the ripple-forming instability…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Inclusions are visible at a wide range of concentrations in NaCl icicles…Credit: Phys. Rev. E 106, 054211, 17 November 2022Â