Our little pond and new stream continue to provide unending interest in this cold weather as the beautiful ice formations and patterns are always changing.
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- The refurbished pond and new stream at the back of our house
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- View from my study window
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- The pond and stream
Here are a few of the strange shapes around the stream.
Yesterday, I noticed that shards of ice were growing very slowly from the edges of the pond so took short video clips about every 90 seconds through the day to capture the growth.
I still don’t understand how and why shards of ice were growing when the temperature was +2C and most of the ice had melted. Any physicists out there who can explain?!
You can watch the speeded up film on YouTube (only one minute).
We have also had some heavy frosts which have made the garden sparkle in the sunlight as the ice crystals fringe some leaevs whilst covering others.
Here’s my attempt at an explanation:
Evaporation of water requires energy which is taken from the remaining liquid. If the temperature is close to freezing then evaporation could cool the liquid water to below 0 and freezing can start/continue.
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Thank you, Matthew. That sounds very plausible. Even though the air temperature was +2C, I am sure the water must have been about zero. But it’s still puzzling that most of the ice had actually gone – so why did most of it melt whilst some bits were growing?!
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