{"id":19769,"date":"2017-03-21T08:00:41","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T15:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=19769"},"modified":"2017-03-21T08:00:41","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T15:00:41","slug":"icicle-ripples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=19769","title":{"rendered":"Icicle ripples"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

With the (inept) proclamation in the media that yesterday was the first day of spring, icicles\u00a0would seem to be an inopportune topic.\u00a0Yet, sometimes a natural phenomenon festers for years before treatment. Such is the case with icicles.<\/p>\n

Icicles were a winter staple\u00a0of my childhood home (elevation ~1060 m) in Rossland. That was in an era\u00a0that preceded modern home insulation, so heat leaking through the roof in sub-zero weather resulted in abundant\u00a0icicles. Indeed, my father broke his back in a fall from a ladder while trying to clear icicles from our home.<\/p>\n

The origin, growth, tapered shape, and many features of icicles provide a rich cabinet of curiosities. These are worthy of many postings, so more may appear\u00a0in subsequent years. The topic for the moment\u00a0is the ripples that may grace the sides of icicles.<\/p>\n

The odd thing is that sometimes icicles have remarkably smooth sides; yet, sometimes they display ripples which, strangely, all have a wavelength of about a centimetre. Now, I cannot explain why these ripples arise. However, as a result of a study by Chen and Morris of the University of Toronto (On the origin and evolution of icicle ripples<\/a>), I can say what causes them: salt.\u00a0Salt is an ionic solute: It separates into ions upon dissolution. I can only guess why this might produce ripples in icicles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These icicles have smooth sides indicating that the water flowing to them from the roof is pure.\u00a0
\n \"\"<\/p>\n

These icicles show prominent ripples suggesting the presence of an ionic solute, such as salt. They formed in the wilderness from the natural drainage off the face of a cliff.
\n \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  With the (inept) proclamation in the media that yesterday was the first day of spring, icicles\u00a0would seem to be an inopportune topic.\u00a0Yet, sometimes a natural phenomenon festers for years before treatment. Such is the case with icicles. Icicles were … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19769"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19799,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19769\/revisions\/19799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}