Talk:Brinicle

scientifically
I think it is not scientifically correct to say that "the brinicle is likely to break free due to its own weight before reaching the seafloor.", since ice is lighter than water and therefore it should be pushed up because of the Archimede's principle. I did not edit the page because I am not 100% sure. Perhaps the weight of the cold water inside the hollow ice tube creates a downward pressure on the tube walls. Anyone with a reliable source?

You are right. Martin's model I put in the ref list is a little more complicated as he talks about the thermodynamics being the control - not the mechanics. I'll fix it, but I'm a bit busy now. Mabra99 (talk) 16:26, 23 November 2011 (UTC)


 * The name of ice stalactite for this phenomenon seems more common so I have moved the article to that title. The name brinicle still remains as a redirect and I have kept it in the lead though I could not find any usage by that name in Google Books. Warden (talk) 11:01, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

thermodynamics
As a chemist, I'd like to see more of the thermodynamics. In this article and the BBC transmission it is not clear why the brine in contact newly-formed ice is at a lower temperature. The reason is that heat is absorbed in the freezing process - the opposite of heat being required to melt ice, cooling the water at the ice/water interface. As the denser and colder brine diffuses away more ice is formed in those regions where the local temperature is below the local freezing temperature.

Ice and sea-water are in dynamic equilibrium with each other. It is the physical transport of denser brine away from the ice/water interface which allows the brinicle to grow. Evetually equilibrium is reached when there is a gradient of salinity from near zero at the interface, up to the bulk value. The gradient occurs because dissolved ions will spontaneously diffuse from a region of high concentration to regions of lower concentration. Petergans (talk) 15:08, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

"Icy finger of death"
Does anyone have any objections to including the term "icy finger of death" somewhere in the article? I know it's just a nickname probably made up by the press to describe the BBC documentary's image. I ask because I didn't know the correct term for this, so I searched for "icy finger of death" on Wikipedia and didn't find an immediate answer.

If not, what about a redirect? --Alan daniel (talk) 20:50, 3 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Redirects are cheap so I've gone ahead and created icy finger of death. Not sure about mentioning it in the article unless it can be shown that this nickname has some sort of currency outside that one-time use. mgiganteus1 (talk) 04:41, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

Name change for article
I recommend changing the title of this article to be more specific. It should be brinicle, since ice stalactites or ice stalagmites are more commonly encountered in caves across the world and is probably more often referred to as that. The article stalactite has been expanded to include ice stalactites which may be confused with this brinicles article (which will now get a mention in the stalactite article). Leitmotiv (talk) 19:15, 7 July 2013 (UTC)


 * It appears to me that this article is defining a very specific kind of ice stalactite, the brinicle also referred to as an ice stalactite. However, ice stalactites from caves are more commonly encountered (probably more abundant too). Since icicles may also be referred to as ice stalactites, it seems to me that this article should be differentiated from the other two by renaming it to brinicle, but noting it can also be referred to as ice stalactite. Leitmotiv (talk) 22:06, 8 July 2013 (UTC)