Ice is water that has solidified into a solid-state. It can seem clear or more or less opaque bluish-white depending on the presence of contaminants such as dirt particles or air bubbles.

Ice is plentiful throughout the Solar System, ranging from as close to the Sun as Mercury to as far away as the Oort cloud objects. It exists as interstellar ice outside of the Solar System. It is prevalent on Earth’s surface ” notably in the polar regions and above the snow line ” and plays an important role in the water cycle and climate of the planet as a frequent type of precipitation and deposition. It falls as snowflakes and hail, or forms frost, icicles, or ice spikes, and forms glaciers and ice sheets from snow.

Depending on temperature and pressure, ice has at least eighteen phases (packing geometries). Depending on the history of pressure and temperature, up to three kinds of amorphous ice can develop when water is rapidly cooled (quenched). Correlated proton tunneling happens below 253.15 °C (20 K, 423.67 °F) when slowly chilled, resulting in macroscopic quantum phenomena. Almost all ice on Earth’s surface and in its atmosphere has a hexagonal crystalline structure called ice Ih (pronounced “ice one h”), with traces of cubic ice called ice Ic and, more recently, Ice VII inclusions in diamonds. When liquid water is chilled below 0 °C (273.15 K, 32 °F) at standard atmospheric pressure, the most frequent phase transition to ice Ih occurs. It can also be deposited directly by water vapor, as in the case of frost formation. Melting is the transfer from ice to water, while sublimation is the transition from ice to water vapor.

Ice may be utilized for a number of purposes, including cooling, winter sports, and ice sculpture.

Ice is classified as a mineral since it is a naturally occurring crystalline inorganic solid with an ordered structure. It has a regular crystalline structure that is inspired by the water molecule, which is made up of a single oxygen atom covalently linked to two hydrogen atoms, or H”O”H. However, the creation of hydrogen bonds between neighboring oxygen and hydrogen atoms controls many of the physical characteristics of water and ice; while this is a weak link, it is important in determining the structure of both water and ice.

Water has a unique characteristic in that its solid form”ice is frozen at atmospheric pressure”is 8.3 percent less dense than its liquid form, resulting in a 9 percent volumetric expansion. At 0 °C and standard atmospheric pressure (101,325 Pa), ice has a density of 0.9167″0.9168 g/cm3, but water has a density of 0.9998″0.999863 g/cm3 at the same temperature and pressure. At four °C, liquid water has the highest density, around 1.00 g/cm3, and as the freezing point approaches, the water molecules begin to form hexagonal ice crystals, which lose density. This is because hydrogen bonding dominates intermolecular interactions, resulting in a less compact packing of molecules in the solid. Ice density increases somewhat as temperature decreases, reaching 0.9340 g/cm3 at 180 °C (93 K).

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