Location Taken: Freeville, New York
Time Taken: December 2010
Did you know that the ripples in icicles are caused by salt in the water?
Completely pure icicles have straight edges, while ones with a really high salt content get more wibbly wobbly than a lava lamp. Normal snow-melt icicles have just a touch of salt in the mix, so they get a gentle ripple effect as they form.
No, I don’t know any specifics on how the salt does that. I just learned that nifty fact today in the most recent Science News magazine. And it was just a little “interesting fact” sidebar that mentioned it, too.
Still, ripply icicles are salty icicles.
Nifty, eh?
