Spirals of Ice Extruded from Steel Posts Dr. James R. Carter,
Professor Emeritus Illinois State University, Normal, IL
61790-4400 In January 2007 I was introduced to some interesting
photos of ice growing from a metal fence on Vancouver Island,
British Columbia, Canada. I posted photos of this ice and have
subsequently received photos from two persons showing spirals of
ice being extruded from steel posts. Their photos show ice in
the form of rods that curve into spirals. Beautiful and natural.
From a stairway in SW England The first set of photos were taken
by Kath Tooley in southwestern England. She found these spirals
on a set of steel stairs. In this photo I see three spirals
extending from the junctions of three vertical pipes and the
hand rail. Note that not every pipe junction produced ice. The
photo below is a close up from the photo above which gives a
better view of the rod of ice. Note the hole near the top of the
vertical pipe behind the spiral, but no ice is emerging from
that hole. The fact that