page_title: Anchor ice
hierarchical_section_title: Anchor ice
caption_attribution_description: Anchor ice formations can be seen on the sea floor under the sea ice here at Cape Armitage off of Ross Island in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Anchor ice formations will 'cycle', meaning that they will become bouyant enough to lift the rock or gravel that they are attached to off of the sea floor, and will float away in the current or attach to the underside of the sea ice. New anchor ice formations are constantly forming during the coldest periods of the year, September to December. photo by Paul Cziko, DeVries/Cheng lab, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA.
context_page_description: Anchor ice is defined by the World Meteorological Organization as "submerged ice attached or anchored to the bottom, irrespective of the nature of its formation". It may also be called bottom-fast ice. Anchor ice is most commonly observed in fast-flowing rivers during periods of extreme cold, at the mouths of rivers flowing into very cold seawater, in the shallow sub or intertidal during or after storms when the air temperature is below the freezing point of the water, and the subtidal in the Antarctic along ice shelves or near floating glacier tongues, and in shallow lakes.
context_section_description: Anchor ice is defined by the World Meteorological Organization as "submerged ice attached or anchored to the bottom, irrespective of the nature of its formation". It may also be called bottom-fast ice. Anchor ice is most commonly observed in fast-flowing rivers during periods of extreme cold, at the mouths of rivers flowing into very cold seawater, in the shallow sub or intertidal during or after storms when the air temperature is below the freezing point of the water, and the subtidal in the Antarctic along ice shelves or near floating glacier tongues, and in shallow lakes.
caption: Anchor ice growing on the sea floor in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica
exif: {}