...because when water becomes a solid, unlike many substances, it becomes less dense. This is because water crystallizes, and ice has a lot of gaps in it.
But it's now possible to create amorphous ice, where the molecules are disorganized. Surprise surprise, it's not less dense.
How?
By making it very, very cold indeed. Earth never gets that cold, so water has the energy to form crystals. In deep space? Water actually solidifies instead of crystallizing. It ends up looking like a fine white powder and when you warm it up, it recrystalizes, producing remarkable amounts of heat.
This is probably what causes icequakes on ice worlds like Ganymede and Europa. And it's the true solid form of water...all the other kinds of ice are affected by something.
Here's some more details.
No comments:
Post a Comment