Terms Related to Sea Ice


frazil_ice.gif Frazil Ice-Small disc shaped ice crystals approximately 1 mm in diameter freely suspended in the water column1.
Image Source: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/~eicken/he_teach/GEOS615icenom/iceglossary/iceglossary.htm
grease_ice.jpg Grease Ice-Piled up Frazil Ice. Spicules and plates of ice coagalute to form a thick soupy layer of grease ice on the water surface. Depths range from 0.05 m to 0.3 m (in leads). Composed of about 30 percent ice and 70 percent water by mass1.
Image Source: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/~eicken/he_teach/GEOS615icenom/iceglossary/iceglossary.htm
pancake_ice.jpg Pancake Ice-The next stage in ice growth after grease ice. Waves acting on ice, herd the ice into thicker flows that take the shape of free floating ice disks, some reaching 8 ft. in diameter2.
Image Source: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/~eicken/he_teach/GEOS615icenom/iceglossary/iceglossary.htm
ice_floe.jpg Ice Floe-Blanketed by snow, pancake ice cements into floes, which buckle as they ram against one another and slide around2.
Image Source: http://www.musc.edu/cando/ice/kidsatde.html
ice_lead.jpg Lead-An opening between ice floes. Oftentimes, leads are opened by the action of waves and winds on the ice.
Image Source: http://telperion.otago.ac.nz/Marine/po/projects/seaice/Breakup.htm
marginal_ice_zone.jpg Marginal Ice Zone-Region of broken floes where the behavior of surface, ocean waves is distinctly differenct from the open ocean because of the interaction of the ice with the waves3.
Image Source: http://www.arcticphoto.co.uk/gallery2/arctic/landscape/seaice/qq0622-35.htm
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Last Modified: 12/12/2001