Solve this ice cube mystery!
June 19th, 2008
SciencePunk reader Ben writes:
Just found this photo that I took a few months ago. I’m unable to explain what’s going on here with my ice cube tray. I opened the freezer to find it like this.
Any ideas?
Entry Filed under: General
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55 Comments Add your own
1. Rhodri | June 19th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I recall seeing something like this in Fortean Times a while back - someone kept a ping pong ball in an outside pond to stop it from freezing over; but one night it was so cold that the entire pond froze, and the ball was sat on top of a rising column of ice, much like in this picture (but much thicker, obviously). I couldn’t even begin to guess at a scientific explanation though…
2. george | June 19th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
You probably had a slow leak in the water supply to the tray. So instead of the water shutting off after the tray filled it slowly dripped and formed that little peak.
3. Simon | June 19th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Aliens.
4. Brandon | June 20th, 2008 at 2:32 am
These things are called ice spikes. They form when the top surface of the ice cube freezes except for a small hole, and then freezing water gets pushed up through that hole, forming a spike. More information can be found here http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/icespikes/icespikes.htm
5. Jeremy in Shanghai | June 20th, 2008 at 5:01 am
wow, Brandon, FTW!
I always thought the drip explanation was poor, and unlikely in my freezer. Thank you for that, Brandon.
6. Andrew | June 21st, 2008 at 5:20 am
I believe you had some condensation water dripping from above that spot and it froze into a stelagmite, you must have had the freezer door open for a while at one stage to collect moisture from the air.
7. Brandon | June 21st, 2008 at 9:19 pm
@ Jeremy: No problem, glad I can help.
8. Unixman | June 23rd, 2008 at 7:44 am
Viagra?
9. reef | June 23rd, 2008 at 11:29 am
No Andrew, a valid explaination has already been provided, see 4, then 5, then learn how to spell, then hang ye head in shame…
10. reef | June 23rd, 2008 at 11:31 am
p.s. I can’t do that speeling bit either
11. Jeremy | July 1st, 2008 at 2:52 am
Darn! I knew that one!
Just discovered this website. Brandon is correct in his explanation. The conditions have to be right, but that is the cause.
Andrew’s explanation was a good one, but the angle of the spike would make that cause unlikely.
Therefore, Andrew has my absolution.
12. smart one | July 1st, 2008 at 9:59 pm
believe you had some condensation water dripping from above that spot and it froze into a stalagmite usually found in caves.
13. hoffwatch | July 4th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Why are people still offering incorrect explanations when this has already been provided? (Thanks Brandon)
Read the posts, then comment, otherwise it just suggests that you’re not really that interested and just want to offer your opinions into the mix.
Sorry if this sounds like a rant (but I guess it is) and I’m sick of that kind of attitude turning advice forums into misinformation central.
Whilst the theory on water dripping is a reasonable one, please could people stop suggesting it as otherwise it may get read and taken as the explanation, and that helps no one (I believe this site occasionally condones bad science, or something like that…?)
14. Spurtz | July 12th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
What are the odds… a whole page on an explanation.
15. themadlolscientist | July 14th, 2008 at 4:13 am
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that ice cube had the hots for someone (or something), but I’d certainly say it’s excited and up for some action……….
16. MrIceSpike | July 18th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I get one of these every damn time I make ice. In fact, I have two right now!
17. iceman | July 18th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I believe you had a drip somewhere above your ice tray causing to slowly form a spike, a la stalagmites in caves.
your welcome
the iceman
18. xidarian | July 18th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
totally photoshopped
19. Allstarn07 | July 18th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Water molecules like to stick together, which is why you will sometimes have water run under your arms in the shower, and it wont drip down. You probably had a leak and it touched the tray, and froze before it could all dip down. How that icescicle didnt stink to the freezer, i dont know
20. hawki | July 18th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
stalagmite
21. drew and not u | July 18th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
it’s a street-light
22. Jeremy | July 18th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Learn something new everyday.
Just imagine what people might learn if they just took a minute to read through comments before knowing-it-all themselves.
23. nnY | July 18th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Why are you people so fucking stupid. The Answer Brandon gave in response #4 was correct. Didn’t the author state that there was no leak in his freezer? My mother gets these in her freezer on every ice cube every time she makes ice, and there is no water connected to the fridge at all. Condensation? What makes you think a paper thin layer of water will remain unfrozen while a big block of ice freezes first?
24. homerj | July 18th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
definitely a stalagmite
25. Fred Phelps | July 18th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
It was God did it, just for you. And here you are trying to find “natural” explanations. Sheesh. How many miracles a day do you need before you BELIEVE?
26. Angus | July 18th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
goddidit.
27. W. Jonthan McCoy | July 18th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Cool!
28. Jimguru | July 18th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
I’m going with the Viagra option…
29. Russ | July 18th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Super Viagra?
30. LBDumont | July 18th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
The drip hypothesis very much wants a disproval. Its supporters appear to personally, as opposed to analytically, dislike the alternative explanation; no amount of data in favor of a non drip-induced explanation will serve.
So here’s a new bit of data in the other direction.
In a -18C/0F air bath (aka freezer section of your refrigerator) an intermittent drip will either freeze before a new one falls or not. If it freezes before the new one falls, each frozen drop residue will leave a visually detectable interface caused by the minimal surface melting that occurs when the still-liquid next drop.
These interfaces would give the ice spike a striped appearance, something analogous to the rings on a tree.
If the next drop falls before the last one freezes, it eventually melts the ice cube and you have a flooded kitchen.
This spike has a crystal clear section near the bottom. The probability that it could form that way in anything but a continuous, uninterrupted single event is absurbly low.
31. LBDumont | July 18th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Oh, and water has a very high suface tension. That makes it do weird physical stuff. The way it can pile up slightly on top of an already-full glass. And as note above by Allstar07, the water molecules do like to stick together. Oxygen is a big atom that just needs two electrons to fill it’s shell. It finds two wimpy little hydrogens and just grabs those electrons like a bully stealing a nerd’s lunch money. So now you have this big-ole, slightly negative (because of the extra two electrons) oxygen with basically two positive protons sticking out of one side. So, when you get a whole bunch of liquid water molecules in one place, they tend to sort of line up with the hydrogen atoms/protruding protons lining up with the back side of another oxygen. The way they sort of hang out “in formation” gives water a strong surface tension, and causes it to do things most other liquids do not.
32. nick | July 19th, 2008 at 1:30 am
shopped
33. zom-zom | July 19th, 2008 at 1:46 am
I CAN HAZ STALAGMITEZ?
34. Allstate | July 19th, 2008 at 2:01 am
I can’t prove what Brandon in #4 is true, but I do know that in virtually every freezer works the same way. The way it cools is by conditioning the air, which means it take to moisture out of the air while chilling it. If it didn’t, you would eventually just have a large block of ice for a freezer, so there would be no way a freezer would condensate for long, not long enough to do that, especially if the freezer has no water connections. So it’s safe to say Brandon is right.
35. misha | July 19th, 2008 at 2:11 am
neat explanation. i got one of those like 10 years ago. I thought it was the neatest thing ever. to continue w/ the neat theme here, i think it is really neat that other people get them all the time.
36. illuminatiscott | July 19th, 2008 at 5:12 am
I’ve seen this same process in a very short timespan, via dry ice. I simply dropped any sort of liquid (one with a high surface tension, like water, is probably best) onto the block of dry ice, and after a minute or so there is a noticeable growth on the top of it. As Brandon said, it’s just a hole on the surface that allows more liquid through, ad finitum.
37. nick | July 19th, 2008 at 6:10 am
man-bear-pig
38. anon | July 19th, 2008 at 7:13 am
it shows that u fail at making ice cubes
39. Jim Ashworth | July 21st, 2008 at 2:52 am
Stalagmite, obviously. That article was so bogus.
I’m being ironic, don’t get your knickers in a twist.
40. FarSide | July 21st, 2008 at 5:54 pm
PhotoShopped. That’s the only explanation you need right there.
Ya’ll so gullible.
41. Tim Brown | July 22nd, 2008 at 6:37 am
UM……dude……your going to need to call BUFFY soon.
42. rorski | July 24th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Yep, ice spike - a few stumbles back I saw a tutorial for making them. Freezer needs to be just under around 0ºC, helps to use mineral water (reduced salts and minerals from tap water) and have a fan in freezer. Pretty much.
43. Terance | July 24th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
I believe you had some condensation water dripping from above that spot and it froze into a stelagmite, you must have had the freezer door open for a while at one stage to collect moisture from the air.
I would say that’s pretty accurate.
Or photoshop, ftw.
44. JD | July 25th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Just read the posts, please. It’s in post four. IT’S NOT A STALAGMITE. AND IT’S NOT SHOPPED.
45. mmmwww | July 26th, 2008 at 6:22 am
that paticular ice cube was made of distilled water.
46. Jane | July 26th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Ok Brandon, (number 4) you got this one right.
Now how about telling us which came first; the chicken or the egg?
47. Hoyoa | July 30th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Why the hell would it be a drip? It would freeze solid before the rest of the cubes. Now shut up and get me a drink.
48. Skwirral | July 30th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Well, when an ice cube reaches a certain age, it starts to undergo some changes. Growing hair(line fractures) in unusual places and speaking in a deeper tone of voice, possibly also some growth spurts. The most noticeable change is in the ice cube’s reactions to ice cubes of other genders (the crescent kind that in-freezer icemakers usually produce, for instance). Certain hormonal changes cause the mind to become more sexually inquisitive, and can lead to nocturnal emissions and uncomfortably obvious erections. I believe that what this picture demonstrates is simply part of the ice cube’s journey through puberty, that maker of men (and ice cubes) that we all must face.
49. LO | August 7th, 2008 at 3:59 am
go here, http://www.supermegacorporation.com/smc/downloads/icespikes.pdf
this is where post #4’s website got there facts, however, I think you should consider impurities in our tap water, and I hope that impurity is viagra flushed in the can…..lol
50. Tardus | August 12th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
FAKE! you can’t photoshop something like that, and stalagmites don’t form in freezers.
51. Clarke Waldron | August 20th, 2008 at 3:49 am
I have over thirty instances photographed of this happening to my ice cubes. I am completely certain that it is undeniable evidence of aliens; they are very obviously trying to communicate with us Earthlings. I am rather sure that they are friendly but I have yet to work out an algorithm (you know, a math thingy) to decode the messages. Anyone interested in my collection of images may contact me. Perhaps together we can construct a Rosetta Stone. It’s just so intriguing!
52. AnswerMan | August 20th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I’m pretty sure it’s stalagmites.. photoshopped stalagmites
53. chris | August 20th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
i thought stalagmites hang from the ceiling…and stalagtites grow from the floor?
54. reef | August 22nd, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Firstly it’s stalactites and secondly a pre-requisite to posting on this page is the availability of an internet connection (and all the masses of easily accessible information she holds…). A quick search of which would reveal that NO, stalactites don’t grow from the floor.
Finally here’s one formed outside, maybe it was formed with drips from the sky huh?!
Frank: you’re site’s become too popular and started to attract muppets that don’t do their research (i.e. bad scientists!)
55. Frank the SciencePunk | August 22nd, 2008 at 1:38 pm
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