[sbrownpearn]

Hello everyone,

I am not a chemist, I am an artist. However, I am extremely perplexed by a strange anomaly which has formed on one of my ice cubes this morning and I was hoping one of you brilliant individuals could provide a physical or chemical explanation.

Last night, around 5:00 PM I filled my silicon ice cube mold with bottled water (this mold produces four ~2.5" cubes of ice).

Today at 4:30 PM, I opened my freezer to discover this:


Three of the ice cubes formed normally, while the fourth (rear in this image) developed some strange diagonal protrusion (approx 2" long). I also noticed that the top of the frozen "cube" from that section of the mold is ~.25" lower than the other three, which hypothetically shows that this particular protrusion formed from the water within the mold, not some other source dripping or falling into it during the freezing process.

is this explainable? Thank you for your help.

Spencer

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Mod edit: Image slightly resized

[Borek]

What has happened is the water freeze at the surface, starting from the borders and leaving a hole in the middle. Then, when it freezes down, it pushes water through the hole - and this pushed water freezes as well on the surface, building a tube.

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

[Arkcon]

Hello everyone,

I am not a chemist, I am an artist.

...

Spencer

That may all be true, but I like the way you describe a phenomena carefully and completely.  Sometimes people don't do as good of a job when they describe their class labs to us.

[curiouscat]

That may all be true, but I like the way you describe a phenomena carefully and completely.  Sometimes people don't do as good of a job when they describe their class labs to us.

+1