Someone explain this...

[UTfball68]

My mom sent me this ice formation in one of her bird baths this morning. How??? And what could have formed it? No other info other than this pic and she asked the same questions.

 

[XJsavage]

Location and approximate temperature?
That is really freaking cool.

 

[YOUNGBLOOD13]

Same voodoo magic as all them recruits signing with Vols. Lol. Had to be windy, layering up. Probably a name for it, someone smart will know. Merry Christmas. Go Vols!

 

[UTfball68]

Location and approximate temperature?
That is really freaking cool.

Salisbury, NC...somewhere between 26-30* at 8am this morning. With the heat the last week...thought maybe a butterfly died and froze...based on shape, but where’s the butterfly.

 

[UTfball68]

Same voodoo magic as all them recruits signing with Vols. Lol. Had to be windy, layering up. Probably a name for it, someone smart will know. Merry Christmas. Go Vols!

Ha...Go Vols. But that’s a valid point, did have a 5-10mph breeze most the night.

 

[rockcity]

That water was probably super chilled but not frozen. Then an acorn fell in and disturbed it and the water froze mid splash.

 

[C.Berry]

I’ve seen this in nature a few times one I found was roughly 11” tall and thin as paper on small bodies of water cannot recall what i Read causes it tho! I wanna say gas/air causes it but I’ll have to look it up! That’s cool as hell tho!

 

[Fabrik8]

It's usually water that gets pushed up through a crack or a hole in the ice as the main volume of water freezes and expands, and the pushed-out water freezes in small amounts at a time. See the layers in the horizontal direction?

 

[C.Berry]

ice spikes are the name of it and is exactly as @Fabrik8 mentioned! Natures Physics at its finest!

 

[rodney eppes]

ice spikes are the name of it and is exactly as @Fabrik8 mentioned! Natures Physics at its finest!

That, or a Frog Farted!

 

[kaiser715]

Hoar Frost or Rime Ice.....

So, what’s the difference between hoar frost and rime ice? It all has to do with how the ice crystals formed: hoar develops when water vapor freezes, going directly from the gaseous state to the solid, while rime forms where supercooled liquid water droplets freeze on contact with cold surfaces. If it goes from gas to solid, it’s hoar frost. If it goes from liquid to solid, it’s rime.

Hoar Frost and Rime Ice: What’s the Difference?

 

[ncpartsguy]

Frost flower - Wikipedia