23 April, 2002

Weather

The Science Behind Snow Ice

Snow ice (white ice) is pretty much frozen slush. When

snow depth increases, the weight causes stress

fractures. Water, flowed through the cracks, soaks

part of the snow cover and freezes overnight

increasing total ice thickness. Ice coring, an ice

sampling tool used for various purposes was not used

to measure snow ice because of lack of snow this

winter. We simply used a meter stick.

View TEA teacher, Marge’s ice samples

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1. Clearing approximately 1 x 1 sq ft for drilling

2. Want to build an igloo??

3. Measuring snow ice

4. Stress fractures (from heavy snow) allow water to seep through cracks, which then soak up the base of the snow cover.

5. When temperatures drop below freezing, slush freezes. Surface ice growth increases impacting total ice thickness.