Friday, January 29, 2010

Thematic Photographic 86: "Water In Any Form" v.2.0 - Rime On The Mountain


"Rock Candy It Ain't"
Blowing Rock, NC - February 2001 (Click to embiggen)

Thematic Photographic hosted by Carmi - Button Image by Smarmoofus Hosted by Written Inc.

When Carmi introduced this theme, a couple of the suggestions he made were ice and fog. Here we have both. Known variously as "hoar frost" or "rime icing" (and probably other things I've never heard) this phenomenon occurs when fog -- or a low flying cloud -- meets a supercooled air mass. The sudden drop in temperature squeezes the moisture out of the wet air, freezing it almost as fast as it precipitates. And it collects rock candy style on everything around. In this case it transformed a few strands of horsehair and a barbed wire fence into art. This is a fairly light deposit, but I've seen photos of rime icing several feet thick and sculpted by high winds into shapes that would rival anything in the Painted Desert. Whatever form it takes, it's an inspiring thing to see. Nature as artist.
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4 comments:

Glennis said...

Holy moly!! That's beautiful!! How delicate.

Maude Lynn said...

How cool!

SandyCarlson said...

I remember seeing this in Ireland, where it was simply frozen fog. But it's not simple at all. It is magic. Your photo tells the story.

theMuddledMarketPlace said...

that's COLD!

(and beautiful....)