On The Mechanism Of The Naturally Formed Ice Spikes

The formations of the ice spike, which is the ice bar risen upward from the ice surface in bowl and has been known as a mystery of the Mt. Mai in Jinan, Jeonbuk Korea, are observed and analyzed through the observation records on more than 60,000 bowls of water for 8 years and 7 days and nights\u27 consecutive meteorological observations. Experiments making the ice bar in the refrigerator have also performed. As results, it is verified that the ice spike is not a mystery but a naturally grown ice bar caused by the volume expansion centralized to a certain point called breathing-hole when the status changes from water to ice. It is also verified that the ice spike grows by the synchronized cooling of the bowl not only on upper part but also on lower and side parts. In the breathing-hole that is the unfrozen part of the ice surface, it is caught with animated photographs that not the ice but the water rises upward like a farsighted eye glasses. At the edge of the rising water, the ice wall is formed by the evaporation cooling and the conduction from the cold air. Also, the peculiar meteorological conditions related to the formation of ice spike at the valley of the Mt. Mai is found. The 1st is that the the huge tafoni rocks of the Mt. Mai may make frequently the favorable temperature condition for ice spike, which is near zero degree Celsius, through the continuous evaporation and sublimation and raditive cooling. The 2nd is that lower topography of the area that permits only the slow intrusion of cooled air in the valley. The 3rd is the water in the valley that contains much air parcels obtained during the flow down through the cold tafoni rock