A lot of people think the ocean can’t freeze because it’s salt water, but that’s not true. The ocean does freeze; it just takes longer than fresh water. It doesn’t freeze completely through or way far out, and it isn’t something you can ice skate on, but it does freeze. It starts near the shore and it looks like huge frozen bubbles, as you can see in the photo. The constant movement does not allow it to freeze into a smooth surface. You can’t tell from this photo, but you can see the ocean moving underneath the ice, and the ice itself also sways back and forth. It’s like a liquid solid, if that makes any sense.
Out in the center between the two shores, you can just make
out that the ocean is not frozen there. It
is only half a mile between these two shores, but there is enough distance that
you cannot make out the ice on the opposite shore. It's there, though, and looks pretty much like this shore
does. Sometimes an iceberg begins to
form out in the middle and it flows down the center between the two shores
where the water isn’t frozen. It can grow
surprisingly fast and dissipate just as quickly.
Although it looks solid, this is not something you would
want to try to play on or walk across because it is not stable, and the rocks
are icy and treacherously slippery as well.
It is, however, very mesmerizing.
The giant frozen bubbles sway back and forth, back and forth. If it weren’t for the unbearably cold wind on
the ocean, I could easily fall in due to being in a trance. Or perhaps it’s the cold wind that has frozen
the sense right out of me. In any event,
I do not stay long on the shore in the winter.
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| Giant frozen ocean bubbles. |
