# Interesting Phenomenon - Ice Tube



## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Found this form couple night ago from some water collected on a planter?

Anyone has some simple scientific explanation - no X-file or Outer-Limit stuff


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Cool question, gklaw! Let me think about it.

It's a bit hard to brainstorm because I can't see anything around the planter -- any sources of water that the tubes could have slipped off of, like a vine that runs down from gutters, where the water on the vine might have frozen, then fallen down into your planter when it thawed.

Can you tell if the tubes were always standing up like that? Or could they have been formed at the base of your planter, then tipped upwards due to the weight of some part of the ice that we can't see, in water? 

How wide are the cores of the tubes? The size of spaghetti? The size of a Bic pen? 

This sounds like fun! (Though of course we know it is the famous west coast winter ice boring troll...)


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## LikeItLow (Jan 11, 2011)

i saw a show a year or 2 ago, and i believe its water impurities being forced out. it also happens in your ice cube trays in your freezer. 

im going to look for that clip i saw.


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## LikeItLow (Jan 11, 2011)

ok sorry not impurities. just water being forced out.

Spikes on Ice Cubes


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

It's very simple. There was a slow drip, and as the drip came down, it incrementally froze to form those rings, since each "ring" was exposed to air. The same way stalactites form. Very neat though. If it was a faster drip, you wouldn't notice the ridges as it would be very faint, but you'd be able to see it in thin section on a microscope.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

I don't see anything dripping on it though. Looks like it just grew out of the water - water is stagnant.

It is big enough to comfortable slip a finger in there.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Stalagmites do that, grow upwards. But there still has to be drippings. This reverse icicle would have to work against gravity to grow upwards, which would be highly unlikely.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Look this afternoon, "above it only sky"  I am thinking: the leaves decay caused gas to push out of the frozen surface?


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Possibly, or maybe some other phenomenon that was not observable.


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## LikeItLow (Jan 11, 2011)




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## LikeItLow (Jan 11, 2011)

double post....


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## Canadian_Aqua_Farm (Apr 21, 2010)

No idea what it is but I had one of those form in a bucket of water that was left outside on Sunday night. First time I've ever seen anything like it.


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## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

you're bringing out my inner geek, Gordon. I'll be all night checking this out on-line!


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Ursus sapien said:


> you're bringing out my inner geek, Gordon. I'll be all night checking this out on-line!


Coffee on me when you find the answer. No alien theory please !!


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

I agree with Kyle's hypothesis about water being pushed up out of a container as it freezes (because water expands when it freezes, unlike other things). Here's a good paper on ice spikes.

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/icespikes/icespikes.pdf

That's assuming the water was pure. I wonder if there was salt in the water, could the spike be caused by the fresh water freezing but making the unfrozen part (in the core) saltier and less likely to freeze.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

The only thing is this is a rectangular tube over 1" at the top and at least 8" tall.


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## LikeItLow (Jan 11, 2011)

gklaw said:


> The only thing is this is a rectangular tube over 1" at the top and at least 8" tall.


well thats huge....i thought it was really small lol


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## InfraredDream (Jun 24, 2010)

Hmmmm... why oh WHY did I check the forum right before bed time????


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

InfraredDream said:


> Hmmmm... why oh WHY did I check the forum right before bed time????


You may have some interesting dreams tonight  Sweet dreams.


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## InfraredDream (Jun 24, 2010)

If I actually manage to go to bed BEFORE I read all the info.
Thanks anyways. Sweet dreams back to you


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