A bizarre underwater phenomenon in Antarctica has been caught on camera. The striking image of ice finger appears ethereal yet conceals a lethal secret.
Midwestern lore claims that icicles dangling off roofs can go right through a man unlucky to pass underneath as it falls. Such terrestrial dangers, however, according to The Mary Sue, appears like small potatoes when compared with the ice finger of death, the icy scabbards of super cold water found in polar regions.
Christened the ice finger of death is the rare nature event freezes and annihilates everything around it as soon as it touches the sea floor. The subzero phenomenon is caused by cold, sinking brine, which is denser than the rest of the sea water. It forms a brinicle or brine icicle as it meets warmer water below the surface, says Express.
At the time of its conception, ice finger of death looks like a pipe of ice getting down from the underside of a layer of sea ice. Within the pipe is the super cold, super saline water formed by the growth of the sea ice above, amassed through brine channels. At first, the ice finger of death is very fragile, its walls are reedy and it is mainly the constant flow of colder brine that put up with its growth and hinders its melt. As the ice accumulates and becomes denser, the ice finger of death becomes more stable.
Ice finger of death are found in both the Arctic and the Antarctic, but it has to be fairly calm for them to grow. The brinicle or the ice finger of death is restricted in size by the depth of the water, the development of the overlying sea ice fueling its flow, and the contiguous water itself. The ice finger of death felt bizarre to read about, and even stranger to see. With the advent of technology like the time lapse on videography, the ice finger of death appears less likely a natural event and more like a spell cast by a wizard that really has so much hate against sea dwelling creatures.
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