A touch of cold reaches the sea floor (Image by BBC)
It sounds like a name from a Trash Metal band from Scandinavia, but it's actually a real natural phenomena: it is an enormous ice column that touches the ocean floor and kills all animals around it.
We all know that the temperatures in the bottom of the ocean are always higher than the ones on the surface, which makes the heat flows that come from the warm seas form ice when they reach the cold air. So, in the surface, the salty water tends to solidify and, in the process, the ice gathers around an unique column that resembles a stalactite. As the tube reaches the sea floor, the ice spreads like a liquid spilled on the floor - and destroys whatever is on its way.
Animals like starfish and sea urchins die instantaneously, since they can't escape the "ice web" and not because of the thermal shock, as one might guess.
We all know that the temperatures in the bottom of the ocean are always higher than the ones on the surface, which makes the heat flows that come from the warm seas form ice when they reach the cold air. So, in the surface, the salty water tends to solidify and, in the process, the ice gathers around an unique column that resembles a stalactite. As the tube reaches the sea floor, the ice spreads like a liquid spilled on the floor - and destroys whatever is on its way.
Animals like starfish and sea urchins die instantaneously, since they can't escape the "ice web" and not because of the thermal shock, as one might guess.
~Ally
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