Frozen slush waves on Nantucket a seldom seen phenomenon

Frozen slush waves on Nantucket a seldom seen phenomenon

Photographer Jonathan Nimerfroh captured pictures of the slurpee waves that have been widely shared on the Internet.

Fishermen and glaciologists report that they have never seen anything like the recent phenomenon of frozen slush waves breaking on the Nantucket shore. Photographer Jonathan Nimerfroh captured images of the slow-motion waves that have spread widely on the Internet. Nimerfroh, who is also a surfer, could not resist, although the waves are probably no good for riding.

Certain environmental factors are necessary to make such a wave occur, including water and air temperature, along with the pattern of water movement. Ocean water, because of its salt content, freezes at 28.4 degrees Fahrenheit, not 32 degrees like fresh water. The motion of the water prevented the ice from forming in a smooth, dark sheet, but other factors also have to come into play.

As the ice begins to freeze, loose needle-like crystals known as “frazil” begin to form. Since salt does not freeze, it gets left behind. The motion of the water caused the frazil ice to form little icy patches that give rise to the slushy appearance when they bump into each other. Eventually the patches fuse to form a sheet, as long as the temperature remains cold enough.

Nimerfroh said the high temperature the day he took the pictures was about 19 degrees, and there was a strong wind from the southwest. Most of the slush waves were around two feet high.

7-Eleven has been excited about the so-called “Slurpee Waves,” and is starting a marketing campaign to call the summer flooding expected in the south “The Big Gulp of Mexico.”

Erin Pettit, a University of Alaska Fairbanks glaciologist, said that she had never seen frozen waves like this. She said waves in Alaska tend to break up sea ice. Another glaciologist, Helen Fricker at the La Jolla, Calif., Scrippss Institution of Oceanography, studies the dynamics of ice flows in Antarctica and said that a full scientific explanation of the phenomenon was outside her expertise.

Nimerfroh said that he returned to the beach the next day only to find the slush waves replaced by an ice sheet.

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