Natures Spectacular Geometry of Snowflakes Frost and Ice
While widely believed that no 2 snowflakes are alike, a researcher caused a frosty flurry when she made the first discovery of a matching set of snow crystals over 2 decades ago. Here we will take a look at the wintery wonderland of Mother Nature all her splendor and glory as she reveals her spectacular artwork with incredible geometry of ephemeral snowflakes, frost and ice.
Snow flakes by Wilson Bentley : “Studies among the Snow Crystals, The Snowflake Man”
from Annual Summary of the “Monthly Weather Review” for 1902. Bentley was a bachelor
farmer whose hobby was photographing snow flakes.
Although it’s extremely unlikely for any 2 macroscopic objects in the universe to bear an identical molecular structure, there are nonetheless no known scientific laws that prevent it. The theory was put under the microscope when Nancy C. Knight, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, reported that she discovered matching snow crystals in 1988. The crystals were however not exactly snow flakes in the usual sense, but hollow hexagonal prisms.
Photo CaptPiper
Snowflake magnified. Photo ViaMoi
Photo Elif Ayse
But how are snowflakes actually created? The process begins in a saturated cloud with subfreezing temperatures. Snow crystals grow as water vapor is deposited on microscopic particles, and the snow flakes form when the crystals collide and stick together. Crystals can be shaped like stars, columns, needles, plates or lumps.
The exact details of the sticking mechanism remains controversial — possibilities include mechanical interlocking, sintering, electrostatic attraction as well as the existence of a ’sticky’ liquid-like layer on the crystal surface.
Photo Jenny Downing
Photo CaptPiper
Photo CaptPiper
Ice crystals formed in the appropriate conditions can often be thin and flat. These planar crystals may be simple hexagons, or if the supersaturation is high enough, develop branches and fern-like features with 6 approximately identical arms, as per the iconic ’snowflake’ popularized by Wilson Bentley. The 6-fold symmetry arises from the hexagonal crystal structure of ordinary ice, and the branch formation is produced by unstable growth, with deposition usually occurring near the tips of branches.
Photo CaptPiper
Photo CaptPiper
Photo CaptPiper
The shape of the snowflake is determined largely by the temperature and humidity at which it forms. Rarely, triangular snowflakes can form in 3-fold symmetry at a temperature of around 28 °F (−2 °C). The most common snow particles are visibly irregular, although near-perfect snowflakes may be more common in pictures because they’re more visually appealing.
Planar crystals — thin and flat — grow in the air between freezing temperature of 32 °F (0 °C) and 27 °F (−3 °C). Between 27 °F (−3 °C) and 18 °F (−8 °C), the crystals will form needles or hollow columns or prisms — long thin pencil-like shapes. From 18 °F (−8 °C) to −8 °F (−22 °C), the habit goes back to plate-like, often with branched or fern-like features.
The maximum difference in vapor pressure between liquid and ice is at about 5 °F (−15 °C) where crystals grow most rapidly at the expense of the liquid droplets. At temperatures below −8 °F (−22 °C), the crystal habit again becomes column-like, although many more complex habits also form such as side-planes, bullet-rosettes and planar types depending on the conditions and ice nuclei.
Photo CaptPiper
Photo CaptPiper
Photo CaptPiper
Most samples of snow crystals are observed by researchers at moderate magnifications of 30X to 500X, often using a low temperature scanning electron microscope (LT-SEM).
Snow samples are very fragile and exposure to the light necessary to photograph them using light microscopes can change structures and even melt them. Using LT-SEM, samples are frozen to temperatures below −170 °C where they can be placed in a vacuum and observed for many hours with no structural changes.
Photo CaptPiper
Photo CaptPiper
Ghost of a melting snowflake. Photo Audreyjm529
The 4 classes of snowflakes include:
• Columns — a class of snow flakes shaped like a 6-sided column.
• Dendrites — the classic snow flake shape that has 6 points, making it somewhat star shaped. A crystal dendrite is a crystal that develops with a typical multi-branching tree-like form. Dendritic crystal growth is very common and illustrated by snowflake formation and frost patterns on a window. Dendritic crystallization forms a natural fractal pattern.
• Needles — a class of snow flakes that are acicular in shape — their length is much longer than their diameter, like a needle.
• Rimed snow — snowflakes that are partially or completely coated in tiny frozen water droplets called rime. Rime forms on a snow flake when it passes through a super-cooled cloud.
Watermelon snow is a reddish-pink colored snow that smells like watermelons, and is caused by a red-colored green algae called Chlamydomonas nivalis.
Magnification of a snow crystal using a low temperature scanning electron microscope.
Photo Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Photo Jerome Mathey
Photo Lalofont
Robin in a snow storm (the white streaks are falling snow). Photo Noel Zia Lee
Nature’s Fantastic Frost
When Jack Frost celebrates winter leaving his dazzling crystal patterns on windows on cold winter mornings, it’s a magnificently fleeting sight to behold, captured here for eternity in photographs.
Photo Clairity
Photo Fdecomite
Photo Ms. Tea
If a solid surface is chilled below the dew point of the surrounding air and the surface itself is colder than freezing, frost will form on the surface. Frost consists of spicules of ice which grow out from the solid surface. The size of the crystals depends on time, temperature, and the amount of water vapor available, and is usually translucent in appearance.
Because cold air is denser than warm air, in calm weather cold air pools at ground level. This is known as surface temperature inversion, and explains why frost is more common and extensive in low-lying areas. Areas where frost forms due to cold air trapped against the ground or against a solid barrier such as a wall are known as “frost pockets.”
Photo Clearly Ambiguous
A crystal forest. Photo Clearly Ambiguous
Crystal shore. Photo Clearly Ambiguous
There are many types of frost, such as radiation — also called hoar frost or hoarfrost — and window frost.
Hoar frost refers to the white ice crystals loosely deposited on the ground or exposed objects that form on cold clear nights when radiation losses into the open skies cause objects to become colder than the surrounding air. A related effect is flood frost which occurs when air cooled by ground-level radiation losses travels downhill to form pockets of very cold air in depressions, valleys, and hollows. Hoar frost can form in these areas even when the air temperature a few feet above ground is well above freezing.
Hoar frost on a birch tree by a river. Photo Ptrktn
Located between Calcutt and Stockton, Warwickshire. Photo Dave Hamster
Photo M^3
Hoar frost may have different names depending on where it forms:
• Air hoar is a deposit of hoar frost on objects above the surface, such as tree branches, plant stems, and wires.
• Surface hoar is formed by fernlike ice crystals directly deposited on snow, ice, or already frozen surfaces.
• Crevasse hoar consists in crystals that form in glacial crevasses where water vapor can accumulate under calm weather conditions.
• Depth hoar refers to cup shaped, faceted crystals formed within dry snow beneath the surface.
Depth hoar is a common cause of avalanches when it forms in air spaces within snow, especially below a snow crust, and subsequent layers of snow fall on top of it. The layer of depth hoar consists of angular crystals that do not bond well to each other or other layers of snow, causing upper layers to slide off under the right conditions, especially when upper layers are well bonded within themselves.
Hoar frost that grows on the snow surface due to water vapor moving up through
the snow on cold, clear nights. Photo JossDude
Hoar frost. Photo G.Goodwin Jr. and Snark
Hoar frost in Lower Saxony, Germany. Photo Daniel Schwen
Window frost — also called fern frost — forms when a glass pane is exposed to very cold air on the outside and moderately moist air on the inside. If the pane is not a good insulator, such as a single pane window, water vapor condenses on the glass forming magnificent patterns. The glass surface influences the shape of crystals, so imperfections, scratches or dust can modify the way ice nucleates.
Advection frost — also called wind frost — refers to tiny ice spikes forming when a very cold wind blows over branches of trees, poles, and other surfaces, and can rim the edge of flowers and leaves. It usually forms against the direction of the wind, and can occur at any hour of day and night.
Photo Active Metabolite
‘Ice ferns.’ Photo Active Metabolite
‘Ice fern forest.’ Photo Active Metabolite
Frosty chaos. Photo Active Metabolite
Photo Active Metabolite
Frozen aqua. Photo Active Metabolite
Photo Active Metabolite
Photo Mila Zinkova
Photo EZS
Photo Sister72
Photo Muffet
Frost on lingonberry leaves. Photo Staffan Enbom
Photo Lepiaf.geo
Frosted marigold. Photo Micky
Fuchsias in frost. Photo Recursion
Photo Mclaire
Photo Jenny Downing
Frost on spider web. Photo No Prawns
Nature’s Beauty in Ice
Nature paints her land with ice appearing in forms as varied as snowflakes and hail, icicles, glaciers, pack ice, and entire polar ice caps.
Icicles. Photo Muffet
Forgotten bits of Lake Erie hang from a railing. Photo Laszlo Photo
Winter ice wonderland. Photo Mysza
Icicles form similar to stalactites in appearance, as water drips and re-freezes. Over time continued water runoff will cause the icicle to grow. If an icicle grows long enough to touch the ground — or its corresponding ice spike growing up from the ground — it’s called an ice column.
Ice column. Photo Kankie
Ice curls. Photo Theedster123
Photo C-66
Photo Mysza
Photo Dan Zen
Photo Striatic
Photo Striatic
Bizarre ice crystals. Photo Clearly Ambiguous
Photo Clearly Ambiguous
Iceman. Photo Erling Magnusson
Wood and ice. Photo Active Metabolite
Wood and ice. Photo Active Metabolite
Photo Barfooz
Feather ice on a plateau near Alta, Norway. The crystals form at temperatures
below −22 °F (−30 °C). Photo Craig Thom
Photo Fdecomite
Frozen bubble. Photo Fdecomite
Frozen raindrop. Photo Audreyjm
Iced dandelion. Photo Strelitzia
Ice formation reminiscent of birds resting on the branch or icy claws. Photo Mysza
Photo Mysza
Iced over Untermeyer fountain. Photo Ralph Hockens
The subsequent photos are the effects of a storm followed by sub zero temperatures in Versoix, a town near Geneva City, Switzerland, on the Leman Lake.
Photo SD-05
Photo SD-05
Photo SD-05
Photo SD-05
Photo SD-05
Photo SD-05
Source: Wikipedia
Related stories:
Stunning Estonia Waterfall Ice World
Phenomenal Hukou Waterfalls of the Yellow River
Recommended reads:
Brass Meets Bricks: 20 Steampunk LEGO Creations by WebUrbanist
Hellish Weather on Other Planets by Dark Roasted Blend
3 Reasons to Take Your Clothes Off in the City by Deputy Dog
5 Things About Shakespeare You Didn’t Know by Neatorama
Folding Plane by Been Seen
Wornderfull Images!
Diego Massarotte [Brazil]
WOW! I just found your blog and I am utterly impressed. Those pictures are beautiful as is your writing. Thank you and I will be coming back!
Julie
Julie’s last blog post..Google Analytics: Blog Etiquette and Keywords
Incredible images of winter! The coldest season’s leaden clouds reveal to those who’d see, a silvery lining of feathery forms exquisite in their beauty.
WordsnCollision’s last blog post..Yo Bob! You’re On The Wrong Floor
Thanks Julie, glad that you enjoyed it
How beautifully said, Steve
I knew you were a great writer, but had no clue that you were also great at poetic verse 
Where do you go for inspiration, I need to come,
delight’s last blog post..14 Funky Modern Furniture Design Chairs
[...] It really is incredibly beautiful — at least, when you’re not socked in with it, anyway. I wish I could have a chance at taking pictures of snow, but alas, it just keeps raining here in Chattanooga. Posted by alice ooh! pretty! Subscribe to RSS feed [...]
Deborah, I’ve been read an article about the water crystals, where the power of love and gratitude will make the formation of water crystals into a beautiful shape like the above snowflakes frost…
You can check it out by visiting this site: http://www.bariumblues.com/conscious_water_crystals.htm
wilson’s last blog post..Milk Drinking Will Help to Reduce Your High Cholesterol!
The images of the snowflakes were amazing. I just finished up a digital photography class in graphic design and really appreciate the images. My question is. How any scientist are going to measure snow flakes?
Regards Greg
Very beautiful pictures! The nature just manifests perfectness in everything. I think we should learn from it, I would like to say that there are people who believe that they are not perfect. This is not right, by the way if we mean that we are not perfect, we say that Nature isn’t perfect either. But when we look at the pictures like these, we understand that we should be grateful for our bodies created by nature, we should be grateful for perfectness of them, for our organs, hormones and inner processes. If we just pay a little more attention we would see that our organisms built perfectly, they adopt perfectly, and develop perfectly.
Thank you for these wonderful pictures again!
I wish you infinite abundance and unlimited success! Good luck!
Stan’s last blog post..Kung Fu Panda – Deepest Chinese wisdom and infinite fun for the whole family
WOW…….ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!!!!
Where on earth do you get these photos from?????
Thanks for the WONDERFUL Posts you give us.
This is one of THE BEST I must say!!!
WOW, what wonderful pictures, I really love them, and I really love these snowflakes.
Looking at the snowflakes and snow almost makes me feel the shivering cold..
The photos are wonderfully taken. Great job!
The abundance of images here is quite enjoyable to view, and the descriptive information along the way keeps it flowing smoothly. It is good to remember that advanced image-creation software is partially intended to mimic natural creations like snowflakes, to the best ability of the designers. These snowflakes come out in shapes that look like trees, or stars, or leaves, or many other items we can imagine when we see them.
Armen Shirvanian’s last blog post..Your Main Source of Competition is Yourself
Much of the time, simply by surfing or coming across an online image, Delight. Sometimes people will also send in some great story ideas.
Thanks for the link Wilson, that certainly interesting
I don’t believe there is a great number of scientists that specialize in the field, Greg. Apparently Nancy C. Knight, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research was one of them.
Well said, Stan. There isn’t anything that can hold a candle to Mother Nature. Glad you enjoyed it, and thank you
Thanks Scooby
Most of the images were found on Flickr, which are credited and linked directly to them beneath each one.
Nancy, Randi, and Armen, wonderful that you enjoyed them
I heard about snow flakes many years ago when I was quite young–no two snow flakes are alike, I thought how could that be. Now I know the whole truth in all the universe no two things are alike–hows that.
Very interesting idea, I had always thought no two snow flakes where alike. Those are some very nice pictures as well, I have never seen magnified snow flakes.
Thank you for such fantastic pictures.I am a teacher and want my class of 7yr olds to see them. They are investigating winter weather and will really find these photos interesting and exciting to see. Thank you for sharing them. I will get some children to leave a reply too!
Absolutely amazing pictures.
Great blog and I will be back for more in the New Year.
Grog’s last blog post..Morality And The Use Of White Phosphorous
[...] finally, natures spectacular geometry of snowflakes frost and [...]
Wow, those pictures are simply amazing, that is some great photography. Well done, well done!!!!
Pine Ridge School
Truly amazing pictures and great read.
Fantastic!
I rememebr the first time I found out you could see the shapes of individual snowflakes. I was sitting in my car and the snow would land on the windshield for a moment before melting away. I was able to peer closely and see the wonderful shapes. Ahh memories of my youth. Thanks for sharing these awesome pics.
Great Photos, Make us look at cold ice and snow as an art instead of a hazard to drive on. Very nice collection here. Thanks for sharing.
These are extremely good photos and very interesting–really worth viewing.
Great collection of photos though it made my mozilla browser very slow in loading, actually the whole blog. Anyway, Wilson pointed it out before but I would like to emphasize it again. Everybody – please check out the work of Masaru Emoto. He demonstrates how water and ice is conscious – as their crystals react to words and music and shape accordingly. Here’s a page to look at some photos:
<a href=”http://www.life-enthusiast.com/twilight/research_emoto.htm” title=”How water structure reflects our consciousness” Emoto’s book I can recommend are “The messages from water” Vol I + II. Life changing stuff!
Great collection of photos though it made my mozilla browser very slow. As a matter of fact the whole blog loads slow for me, if at all. Anyway, Wilson pointed it out before but I would like to emphasize it again. Everybody – please check out the work of Masaru Emoto. He demonstrates how water and ice is conscious – as their crystals react to words and music and shape accordingly. Here’s a page to look at some photos:
<a href=”http://www.life-enthusiast.com/twilight/research_emoto.htm” title=”How water structure reflects our consciousness” Emoto’s book I can recommend are “The messages from water” Vol I + II. Life changing stuff!
The discussion about similar snowflakes is common to the problem “of life outside the Earth”
Scientist think that there is propabiblity of life outside.
So, there is probability of similar snowflakes!
Logica Uspeha’s last blog post..Вы – кандидат физических наук или просто ученый-физик | Бизнес идеи
It just shows that the most beautiful things can form and exist in the most unexpected places. We should start to delimit nature, so that it includes the universe around use, not just the Earth.
Again and again in seeing it and it appears more beautiful then the last time i saw…u always get ur new post done much better then ur last one…great creative power and great hard work.
Wow! These are some absolutely amazing pictures. I am from florida so I forget how beautiful snow and ice really can be. Thank you for reminding me with all these incredible pictures!
There are some breathtaking images here – thank you for sharing! Remarkable that something so essentially simple can have such purity.
im sure my chemistry teacher tried to teach me about nuclear glue or glueons or something or other but i was having none of it.so i think sticky layers are out.i like the interlocking theory.similar to velcro or the cables behind my computer.
george’s last blog post..uk-cheapest domain registration (poor service)
Wonderful images.
It clearly illustrated how beautiful our planet is. We should sometime slow down and take a look around us and admire the work of mother nature.
Thanks for making my day.
Best article.
Thank you
Great collection ..I am very fortunate to come here… thanks for your share..
Saung Web
Hi Deborah .. its Nice Blog .. I like it.. I will be back for another time.
Saung Link
WOW those pictures are AWESOME. I WANT THEM!!!
Natures beauty at its best. I like it. Well done.
Beautiful and awsome. I wish i could see that. I’m from east country and no winter here.
.-= Rick´s last blog ..Three Important Mistakes That Could Bring Down Your Blog =-.
lol
i never touch a snow before..
because i life on tropic season..
by the way i love the pic, would you mind if i share the pic to my friend?
.-= iman´s last blog ..4 Style Tips For Decorating Your Dining Room =-.