February 10, 2013: Frost Flowers

[ZenGum]

Gun Lake in British Columbia,Canada - frost flowers.

When these photographs were taken "the air was extremely cold and extremely dry, colder than the ocean surface. When the air gets that different from the sea, the dryness pulls moisture off little bumps in the ice, bits of ice vaporize, the air gets humid - but only for a while. The cold makes water vapor heavy. The air wants to release that excess weight, so crystal by crystal, air turns back into ice, creating delicate, feathery tendrils that reach sometimes two, three inches high, like giant snowflakes. The sea, literally, blossoms."

Photographer: Michelle Nortje www.southchilcotin.ca