Stunning Time-Lapse Video Captures Salt Water ‘Icicles of Death’
- Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:27am by
Liz Klimas
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When sea ice forms on the surface of salty bodies of water, it leaves behind a brine that is so salty, it sinks — fast. As this happens, the sea water around it freezes instantly, according to BBC, forming what’s called a “brinicle”, or “icicle of death.”
Check out this time-lapsed video — the first ever — of brinicle formation:
BBC has more on this phenomenon filmed by cameramen Hugh Miller and Doug Anderson:
Mr Miller set up the rig of timelapse equipment to capture the growing brinicle under the ice at Little Razorback Island, near Antarctica’s Ross Archipelago.
“When we were exploring around that island we came across an area where there had been three or four [brinicles] previously and there was one actually happening,” Mr Miller told BBC Nature.
The diving specialists noted the temperature and returned to the area as soon as the same conditions were repeated.
“It was a bit of a race against time because no-one really knew how fast they formed,” said Mr Miller.
“The one we’d seen a week before was getting longer in front of our eyes… the whole thing only took five, six hours.”
Equipment used to film the brinicle descending downward. (Photo via BBC)
The crew said the water was about -2C and that it had to contend with wildlife, like seals knocking over forming brincles and equipment, to capture this footage.
[H/T Business Insider]
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Comments (114)
Eyeball
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 12:07pmFind out who is responsible and tax them.
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 2:42pmI can almost hear the Metallica song “Creeping Death” playing in the background.
Report Post »John 1776
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 4:49pmConsidering the Left lies about everything, I suspect we are on the verge of the next ice age!
Looks like a lightning bolt in slow motion.
Report Post »blue_sky
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 5:46pmThe media feasts on weak minded via sensations. The brinicles only occur where extreme salt wash outs are found and threaten only very shallow waters. It has no effect of sea flora or fauna at macro scale. But nice pictures!
Report Post »kindling
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 8:20pmI’m surprised they are not blaming this on man caused climate change. Someone should call PETA to stop the freezing of the water, or at least go gather all those sea stars and take them home.
Report Post »BlackAce41
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 9:39pmI can see them blaming Bush and Chaney for this… And then try to say it is all about Global Warming….
Report Post »nowyoubeyou
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:30pmObviously it is global warming.
Report Post »db321
Posted on November 25, 2011 at 12:22amHurry – we need to create Global Warning now and save these sea creatures. Stop Al Gore now!
Report Post »Pouncing Porcupine
Posted on November 25, 2011 at 1:45amHere’s the right music for this video.
Report Post »tmcmaster
Posted on November 25, 2011 at 10:38am@KickinBack
Report Post »I think it might be more along the line sof “Trapped Under Ice.”
Mainer forever
Posted on November 26, 2011 at 2:25pm@Porcupine….nice choice.
Report Post »RightThinking1
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 12:06pmI’m thinking those starfish ought to consider decaf.
Report Post »liannemr
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:00pmLol
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on November 25, 2011 at 1:40amGood one.
Report Post »SecularConservative
Posted on November 25, 2011 at 6:48amlol
Report Post »Giveitrevolution
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 12:01pmOh great…global freezing is next?
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 4:10pmDon’t you know… Global Freezing… is a byproduct of Global Warming :)
Report Post »RepubliCorp
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 9:52pmIn the 70′s the Libs told us we would all be dead by 2000 from a man made ice age. We were told it would be so cold world wide that we wouldn’t be able to grow crops.We could be saved only by giving total control of all energy to them.(Meaning:rationing for the little people) We were also told the power lines in our house were killing us. Somehow I am still here and commies are still commies…& the POS in the white house is still spewing the same windmill crap.
Report Post »Bermuda Onion
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:52amSee, now if there really was GLOBAL WARMING maybe these creatures would have a fighting chance. This must be Halliburton trying to do away with all the sea urchins and stars to make way for some electronic gadget that spies on liberal countries and their allies.
Report Post »Spirit 72
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 1:07pmActually, the saltier the water, the more things float… including less salty water. Add to that a bit of snow and you have top water which begins to freeze. Since the less salty water is on the top and rising because of the “lifting” quality of salt water, it displaces the briny water, which then “sinks”. What is odd here is that there is no current or ocean wave action to mix the waters before the brinicle can form.
Report Post »Thank God that this is rare. Water is the only substance which expands as it freezes, thereby floating to the top. Otherwise, our rivers, lakes and oceans would freeze from the bottom up, causing massive death in all bodies of water and perpetual regions of icy bottoms, probably eliminating life on earth.
Rayblue
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:45amPeta came out with the announcement that Little Razorback Island
Report Post »will now be known as Little Raisonback Island.
Details at 10:00.
aquablue
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:23amInteresting!
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:19amwow, how funny! it sure shoots Al Gore’s global warming hoax all to Hell.
Report Post »encinom
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:44amI have hear how? The science still holds in support of golbal warming, no matter what the Beckerheads and talking heads at fox say.
Report Post »INOGAWD
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 12:16pm@encinom
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:44am
I have hear how? The science still holds in support of golbal warming, no matter what the Beckerheads and talking heads at fox say.
Keep drinking the KOOL-Aid, AH !!!
Report Post »INOGAWD
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 12:25pmI live in Arizona and this the first time I’ve had
Report Post »turn on the heater before Thanksgiving…..
Haven’t seen much of that Global Warming, YET !!
COFemale
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 12:35pmNo Encinom, the science does not support Global Warming. You remember about those emails where the scientist deleted key data to have their charts support Al Gore. If not, may I remind you we do our homework, you only repeat what you are told. You are such a good little soldier aren’t you.
By the way I can tell you just woke up when you wrote your comment because it made absolutely no sense. Of course, now that I think about it nothing you say makes any sense.
Report Post »The10thAmendment
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 2:03pm@ encinom
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:44am
I have hear how? The science still holds in support of golbal warming, no matter what the Beckerheads and talking heads at fox say.
————————————————————————————————–
Perhaps you should go chat with idiots at NASA who declare that “SOME” gasses generate heat (talk about the ultimate oxymoron), while others do do.
Truth. Water vapor (H2O + 03) which makes up about 5.1% of the atmosphere. It is also the most reflective of the suns rays. Increase in solar activity hyper excites those molecules and the heartbeat of the earth, climate, adjusts accordingly.
Man cannot affect a damned thing with climate change. Go peddle your garbage to those losers at media matters .
Report Post »Awakened One
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 2:43pmEncinom, you’re really not that dense are you? I mean really? The trumped up evidence for ‘mann’ made global warming has been so debunked only a useful idiot parroting the party line, or paid socialist practitioner hoping to keep the gravy train running regardless of consequences, could possibly still state such nonsense with a strait face. For the sake of
Report Post »your own self-esteem please go on to another cause that is still in question. Hanging on to this exposed lie like you are just makes you look foolish.
Rayblue
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 2:55pmHello encinomonicne, I have a daughter who trained EPA inspectors a while back.
Report Post »She explained, rather happily, how the EPA juggles its numbers regarding pollution to create a false scenario in order to overtax companies they decide to target.
They do the same with “Global This or That” also. Only the targeted entity is the entire civilized world.
Anybody who desires to pay tax for a juggling act belongs in a circus. In a cage. With the evolutionarily challenged chimpanzees.
V-MAN MACE
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 3:02pmThe higher electrical conductivity of the briny water creates a situation where the water can be supercooled without freezing.
Report Post »Susie
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 3:03pmHey ECINOM
Report Post »You started off with “I have hear how?”
What ? Are you telling us that you can now hear ?
If so, then, NOW HEAR THIS ! Man made climate change is unsubstantiated no matter how much data your get rich quick, Carbon Trading scientists fabricate. You’ve had your head too close to the wrong end of Al Gore, that king of climate flatulence, which probably accounts for your inability to put a coherent sentence together. Come up for air, clear you head and for Pete’s sake, start thinking.
liberum1776
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 4:42pmLudits, err, I mean gorites….just another religion claiming to know when and how the world will end. Silly little children, if you don’t believe the Bible then why would you believe any other profit of doom like Al Gore? Yes, I used the word “PROFIT” rather than the word “PROPHET” because that is what Al Gores little religion is all about. How is it you can excuse a man for doing the very things that his religion claims will destroy the world while he demands you to not do those things? Having examined the “science” behind “global-warming” I find it significantly lacking esp. when the first lines tend to be “Global warming is a fact” and they reference paper upon paper which have the same first sentence. Pseudo-science is NOT science and the majority of “scientists” these days are nothing more than pseudo-scientists who believe something and then claim the evidence supports it. Example: In years past the claim the sun was causing warming was dismissed (despite the evidence). Now with evidence showing global decrease in temperatures the excuse given by those same people is the sun must be going through a cooling phase. That is but one example and I don’t need the e-mails that have shown the whole scientific community supporting this religion is nothing but a profit scheme.
Report Post »foobear
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 6:02pm“it sure shoots Al Gore’s global warming hoax all to Hell.”
Oh yes, because global warming states that water won’t be able to freeze any more…
Do you even think before posting?
Report Post »foobear
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 6:08pmI can‘t believe I’m supporting Encinomom, but yeah, the science is actually pretty easy to understand and compelling in support of global warming.
There’s three inarguable points:
1) CO2 levels have been rising.
2) These rising levels are due to humanity.
3) CO2 is more permissive to shortwave (high energy) radiation than longwave radiation (such as that reflected/emitted by the earth) which creates a net energy-trapping effect for the planet, called a radiative forcing.
The only uncertainty is over how much the climate will actually heat for a certain amount of radiative forcing. The human-caused forcing is on the order of about 2 watts per square meter, which works out to a best estimate of forcing an around +1.6C temperature gain, but this could be as low as +0.6C or as high as +4C.
The claim that the Earth won’t heat at all as we trap more energy has simply no evidence for it.
Report Post »decendentof56
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 8:35pmENCINOM……
The issue is ….has or does man‘s activities cause Earth’s atmosphere to warm enough to even affect our weather, and if so, can we do anything to reverse it. My answer is no to both.
Earth has cycled through warming and cooling periods many-many times.
Some are using global warming as a tool to implement an agenda, as in Agenda 21.
So, is the Earth warming? Yes. Some. But…. no one has proven beyond any doubt that man has or even can do enough to alter Earth’s climate enough to matter.
Report Post »Don’t you think the SUN has something to do with it? Eliminate ALL autos, trucks, industrial plants…anything which can add pollutants to the atmosphere. The sun can still do more with massive bursts of heat than man could ever do.
V-MAN MACE
Posted on November 25, 2011 at 9:54amfoobear
CO2 is heavier than air, it sinks to the ground. The CO2 forms a sparse blanket of about 3-4 feet deep at the ground. Atmospheric concentration is usually an average level of around 333 ppms at ground level- it fluctuates up and down within a range of a few tens of ppms throughout the seasons, but has been at concentrations of over 2000 ppms in prehistoric times. It forms a blanket at the GROUND interface, not in the sky, because the CO2 sinks to the ground.
But what is the CO2 insulating…the ground? Because that is absolutely ridiculous nonsense… CO2 is a COOLANT. It cools as a gas, it cools as a solid (dry ice), and it cools as a liquid. Heat (infrared radiation) CONSTANTLY radiates into outer space. It cannot get “trapped” in the absorption bands of of CO2.
CO2 makes plants able to withstand higher temperatures without heat stress. Why? Because the plant is able to use the extra heat that otherwise would cause it to have heat stress to photosynthesize more efficiently by the mechanism of CO2 sequestration in the tissues of the plant. That alone proves CO2 a coolant because if the plant wasn’t breathing it in, it would undergo heat stress at higher temperatures.
Everyone knows CO2 makes plants grow GINORMOUS, meaning they put out more oxygen, which is GOOD for humans.
Report Post »prage2001
Posted on November 25, 2011 at 11:18pmEncinom
hear how brown cow!
Report Post »donbrending
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 3:26pmYour ignorance is amazing
Report Post »ThoreauHD
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:07amSalt is destroying the Universe! OMG! Get Al Gore!
Report Post »coindexter
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:18amit’s like obamas hand reaching down from his lofty tower and killing everything “America” that he can touch.
Report Post »The10thAmendment
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:38amNot just that mean old salt actively destroying the climate but as water evaporates and rises, it creates the only real culprit that can affect the climate. Water vapor, which is the most solar generating, and local generating heat source affecting warming conditions.
Report Post »4loveUSA
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:07amBloomberg will have a fit-Brine-salt -look out he will tax it
Report Post »True2The_Word
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:05amI’ve been diving for over 40 years, that includes many dives under the ice in Lake Superior, and I have never seen any thing like this. My thanks to the divers that brought this to us. I just shared it with one of my granddaughters and we agree; there are so many things that we know so little about. How can we be anything but humbled by the wonders of nature!
Report Post »c0mm0nsense
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:21amI think this has something to do with Sea Salt, which the Sea of Superior lacks.
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:27ami agree. We know nothing.
Report Post »True2The_Word
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 7:14pm@ COMMONSENSE
It is the fact that this can occurrs in sea water that makes it even more ammazing! I have seen what looks like giant frozen spagetti under the ice in lake Superior and while it is breath-taking I always thought it was a fresh-water occurance. to see it occur in salt water makes it even more impressive. I for one, would have had a tough time beliving it if I didn’t see it.
Report Post »NeoKong
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:04amYou don’t see that every day.
Report Post »Meyvn
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:58amPretty cool.
Report Post »lel2007
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:56amNo wonder I never see frozen Starfish in grocery sea food cabinets.
Report Post »Cold.Damnb cold. This is why we NEED global warming.
heavyduty
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:50amThat’s it, we have to increase global warming so we can save all those star fish and marine life. This just troubles me so much that almost couldn’t rest last night.
Report Post »Doug
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:48amHas to be global warming, and no doubt George Bush’s fault to boot..
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 4:15pmHoo Rah… for Robin Hood!
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:47amFascinating video….
PETA no doubt will protest the murder of starfish & crabs to make this vid.
Report Post »sbenard
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:46amMind boggling!
Report Post »countryfirst
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:46amThis cannot continue, the liberals will need to regulate the salt brine.
Report Post »red_white_blue2
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:45amThat was truly fascinating!
Report Post »AmericanStrega
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:43amThat’s pretty neat. Poor little Star Fish.
Report Post »mrsmileyface
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:43amIn the Coast Guard I was stationed on an ice breaker and wittnessed dives like this. And yes its extremely dangerous and cold, even in a dry suit.
Report Post »gemologist
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:42amMust have this on Blu-Ray. Something about that David Attenborough’s delivery. Ya gotta get Planet Earth (not the one with Oprah… “Breeed”. Yech!) Is that a clip from blue planet or ?
Report Post »Secessionista
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:40amWow, this is exactly how Obama-care works too!
Report Post »whatthecrazy
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:38amWow that was totally awesome gotta watch it again……….
Report Post »JP4JOY
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 10:35amBrrrrrr even in a drysuit that’s cold diving.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:57amIt would make me wet my dry suit.
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