I don't know what that is.

[ketch]

A friend stopped by today at my job and wanted to know about blue ice. He said he ran into some and remembered from somewhere that it was dangerous. He wanted to know what it was.

 

I told him that the only blue ice I had encountered was in veins where water had seeped into cracks and then froze. The problem I saw with it was that it would signal a discontinuity in the ice. I also told him I was no expert on ice. He said it didn't look like any kinda "vein."

 

Anybody out there know of other forms of "blue Ice" or what the danger might be (or isnt)?

[klenke]

Blue ice: highly compressed ice like the type you see deep down in glacier crevasses. The blueness is due to the pressure squeezing out all the bubbles. Bubbles are what make ice "white." That's the only blue ice I know of.

 

The ice in cracks in rocks you speak of would be more akin to black ice or verglas than blue ice.

[thelawgoddess]

lots of blue ice down here in colorado - pretty water ice.

[Figger_Eight]

It's blue because it's so dense, that's the only wavelength of light that passes through it.

 

That kind of ice can only be found in glaciers where the ice has been sittiing for a long time, squeezing the air out.

[lummox]

the only blue ice i know of that is dangerous is that stuff that is used to keep drinks cold in the icechest: dont eat it.

btw: i thought it was raleigh and/or tendril scattering as the explanation for the blue of water: it scatters blue wavelength light. punch a fukin hole into a snowbank with your skipole and what color do you see inside? trippy.

[MysticNacho]

trippy, lummox, trippy indeed.

[ketch]

Klenke,

Thats the stuff I was thinkin of. I love the blue of crevasses, just not so sure I like the random observation times . The cracks I was thinking of are usually visible in the spring on lower glaciers. Sometimes if there is brief warm wet spell in winter, small to medium cracks get filled with water. When the weather gets cold again this freezes as pure water ice. Later in the spring thaw they are sometimes seen as blue streaks in the surface as the top melts to expose them. I didn't know of a problem with them. My buddy said that what he saw was more like a big patch on the surface, still never heard of it.

 

Thanks everyone for the replies. Maybe he was seein things too

[Dru]

 

note how top pillar of fat, solid ice is blue. note how sketchy rotten lower part is gray or white. i'd call that dangerous and blue ice "safe".

 

maybe not for ice fishing though.