Experimental modelling of the growth of tubular ice brinicles from brine flows under sea ice

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: Testón-Martínez, Sergio, Barge, Laura M., Eichler, Jan, Sainz-Díaz, C. Ignacio, Cartwright, Julyan H. E.
• Other Authors: European Commission, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Junta de Andalucía, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (US)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: European Geosciences Union 2024
• Subjects: Sea ice; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/358491

We present laboratory experiments on the growth of a tubular ice structure surrounding a plume of cold brine that descends under gravity into water with a higher freezing point. Brinicles are geological analogues of these structures found under sea ice in the polar regions on Earth. Brinicles are hypothesized to exist in the oceans of other celestial bodies, and being environments rich in minerals, serve a potentially analogous role as an ecosystem on icy-ocean worlds to that of submarine hydrothermal vents on Earth. The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action CA17120 supported by the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020. Sergio Test\u00F3n-Mart\u00EDnez acknowledges the CSIC and Spanish Andalusian \u201CGaranti\u00ECa Juvenil\u201D project AND21_IACT_M2_ 058 ) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (grant no. 80NM0018D0004).The article processing charges for this open-access publication were covered by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI). Peer reviewed