brinicle
ice stalactite

The stage is now set for the creation of a brinicle.

No one has really seen the formation of a brinicle.”

A brinicle can, under the proper conditions, reach down to the seafloor.

As it does, it creates more ice, and the brinicle grows longer.

If the icepack is mobile or currents too strong, strain will break the brinicle.

If the water is too deep, the brinicle is likely to break free under its own weight before reaching the seafloor.

When the brinicle becomes thick enough, it becomes self-sustaining.

However, as ice accumulates and becomes thicker, the brinicle becomes more stable.

At the time of its creation, a brinicle resembles a pipe of ice reaching down from the underside of a layer of sea ice.

This is a brinicle: an inverted "chimney" of ice enclosing a downward flow of this supercold, supersaline water.

A brinicle is limited in size by the depth of the water, the growth of the overlying sea ice fueling its flow, and the surrounding water itself.

However, unlike brine pools created by cold seeps, brinicle brine pools are likely to be very transient as the brine supply will eventually cease.

In the end, the team found success, to stunning effect, capturing not only the brinicle formation but also, what Jeff refers to as the “river of death” flowing in front of it.

The formation of a brinicle was first filmed in 2011 by producer Kathryn Jeffs and cameramen Hugh Miller and Doug Anderson for the BBC series Frozen Planet.

"Beyond Earth, the brinicle formation mechanism may be important in the context of planets and moons with ice-covered oceans," the report states, citing in particular two moons of Jupiter named Ganymede and Callisto.

Called a brinicle (or brine icicle), cameramen Hugh Miller and Doug Anderson used a time-lapse camera to capture this awe-inspiring event beneath the Antarctic ice shelf for the upcoming Discovery Channel special series, Frozen Planet.

At first, a brinicle is very fragile; its walls are thin and it is largely the constant flow of colder brine that sustains its growth and hinders its melt that would be caused by the contact with the less cold surrounding water.

A brinicle (brine icicle, also known as ice stalactite) forms beneath sea ice when a flow of extremely cold, saline water is introduced to an area of ocean water, being the undersea equivalent of a hollow stalactite or icicle.

But the unexpected moments caught on camera made the discomfort worthwhile, such as the spectacular first-ever footage of a phenomenon known as brinicles, in which salt-rich water drains from an ice sheet above and forms an ice finger of death — as it grows down toward the seabed, the brinicle freezes everything it touches.

King penguin in an episode of Frozen Planet Photograph: Ian McCarthy/BBC We captured other things that had never been filmed before: killer whales cooperating to create waves that wash seals off the ice; and the brinicle, which is a kind of icicle that drops from the ice to the sea floor.

Similar to lava stalactites, ice stalactites form very quickly within hours or days.

I barked, with enough urgency to cause a couple of small ice stalactites to fall somewhere back in the depths of the cave.

Ice stalactites can also form under sea ice when saline water is introduced to ocean water.

Ice stalactites hang from the ceilings.

Broken ice stalactites littered the surface.

Given the right conditions, icicles may also form in caves (in which case they are also known as ice stalactites).

Ice stalactite may refer to:

Ice stalactites may also form corresponding stalagmites below them and given time may grow together to form an ice column.

A common stalactite found seasonally or year round in many caves is the ice stalactite, commonly referred to as icicles, especially on the surface.

At the bottom of the stairs is a large cool chamber where winter ice fills cracks in the floor and ice stalactites often cling to the ceiling until June.

We haul ourselves along in press-up position, to save our knees being ripped apart by jagged lava, and come to a fence of ice stalactites that we must wriggle through.

A brinicle (brine icicle, also known as ice stalactite) forms beneath sea ice when a flow of extremely cold, saline water is introduced to an area of ocean water, being the undersea equivalent of a hollow stalactite or icicle.

The sonar is searching for underwater ice stalactites forced down by the pressure of rafted ice above, but in five trips under the ice and two to the Pole, I've never seen underwater stalactites or ridges deeper than two hundred feet, and we're at three hundred feet now.