Extrusion of Columnar Ice-Crystals from Moist Earth

Abstract

THE phenomenon described by Mr. Larkman (NATURE, December 7, p. 269) was noted and studied by Prof. James Thomson in 1864 and later: see notes collected in his “Papers on Physics and Engineering,” 1912, pp. 269—71. Rather than freeze on the moist earth below, the water prefers to push up the load above it so as to be free to form a homogeneous mass of ice outside, columns of ice being thus gradually extruded. Prof. Thomson regarded the phenomenon as an illustration of his principle of thermodynamical interaction between congelation and stress or other physical circumstances of the medium, which later became widely extended and defined in Willard Gibbs's classical work. See also G. F. Becker and A. L. Day “On the Linear Force of Growing Crystals,” Journal of Geology, May, 1916.