Ice Surface Melts One Step at a Time

Andy Fell — December 14, 2016 - 9:45am

For a solid, ice is slippery stuff, even well below its freezing point. Victorian scientist Michael Faraday discovered over 150 years ago that ice is coated with a thin layer of liquid, which both makes ice slippery and contributes to chemical reactions at the surface. Now, researchers in Germany, the U.S. and Japan have used a combination of experiments and computer modeling to show how this “quasi-liquid layer” forms as layers of the ice crystal melt.

Ice crystals Content

Ice Surface Melts One Step at a Time