Ponds
The ice seeds that initiate ice growth on ponds are mainly harbored by twigs or leaves, from which crystalline ice first grows within a supercooled water surface. Bacteria, fungi and dust in air or on the water surface can also start ice growth. These images are from late fall and early winter 2022, 2023-2024 and Fall 2025 when ice crystals formed, metamorphosed, sublimated, drifted apart or melted several times, over, under and among colorful fall leaves.
Bladed Star With Mosaics: The blue color is mainly from sky reflections and yellow is sunlight backscatter. Blades first formed in or on the twig, the originally coldest object. The long horizontal blade at left was about 1 m long. The mosaics grew from the blades' sides, in a process known as twinning, as the blades lengthened. Repetitive twinning at ever finer scales formed the mosaics.
Blades Over Leaves: These blades range from 2 to 15 cm long. The greens (lilies), browns and oranges (oaks) are leaves just below the ice. Some blades grow from other blades in a process known as crystal twinning.
Feathery Blades Growing From Twig Seeds: This telephoto makes these flat growths appear 3D, growing up from the base of the twig. Details shown in next 2 images. Image acquired on the morning of 15 November 2022, the first freeze of fall.
Detail of the feathery blades of the previous image: Detail of the ice seed host twigs shown next.
Detail of host twigs shown in previous two images: The radial arms have ridges, some of which reflect the blue sky and others reflect direct sunlight.
Mosaics and Blades Under An Overcast Sky: I took this on the afternoon of November 15, 2022. The triangle base is about 7-10 cm long. No sun, no color.
Sea Of Blades With Meltwater: The blades ranged from a few to 15 cm long. Clear areas are meltwater, with capillary fringes along edges and curving into corners. Fringes indicate water under tension and may be shadows where water was excessively strained.
Late Fall Polygons: These polygons occurred 10 days after first freeze. The ice was up to 5 cm thick and isothermal at 32 F. The polygons are recrystallized, with c-axes in random directions. The formation likely caused by thermal convection above warm water. Each polygon had a rough, clear-ice star commonly seen in spring .
Melting Ice Blades With Seed Twig Over Fall Leaves. Overhead image with seeding stump in the middle. Little melt pools on the blades are evidenced by elliptical capillary fringes. Wavy lines without fringes indicate refrozen melt.
Near-Shore Bladed Pond Ice Stars: Horizontal blade at left is about 14 cm long. Smooth blue areas are sky reflections. Melting comprises the lower third where thin black rings indicate capillary surface tension. Photo awarded honorable mention in a local photo contest.
Shimmering Fall Through Broken Ice: Freezing also occurs during the spring. This image was taken on April 10, 2016, when the ice formed the past night began to break up. I was surprised to have captured some color of the far shore trees so early in spring.
Seed Twig And Triangle Of Blades: This image shows the curvature of capillary fringes in the meltwater between the triangle of blades. This photo appeared for February in the 2024 Geological Society of America calendar.
First Freeze, Noon, 13 November 2023. The freeze occurred the previous night but by noon metamorphism had set in.
Detail of metamorphosed Ice-Star Blades With Seed Twig. Metamorphism is evident in the wavy lines (from melt) and pock-marked blades on the right side.
Leaf Edge Among Ice Blades. At center is the top edge of a leaf, below which is a cluster of three Eastern Hemlock pine cones. This debris was the source of the ice blades that grew from them.
Ice Blade Cluster. Unclear where the blades were seeded, but likely at their apices of the triangular ones. Each blade helped stymy its neighbors' growth. It was surrounded by pock-marked ice. A close look will find wavy edges, a sign of refrozen melt.
White Moss-Blue Ice With Melt-Brown Leaf. The debris sat upon an agglomeration of reshaped ice blades with melt at their joints. The green color in the joints between ice sections was real. I have observed such clear polygons in the late stages of melting in ice on my garden bird bath!
Small Ice Blades Among Fall Debris
Advanced Metamorphosed Ice Blades With Edge Melt
Melt Margins, Decaying Ice and Fall Debris. The green color of the edge melt showed up in several images
Reeds Within Metamorphosed Ice
Metamorphosed Ice with Orange Leaf
Maze Of Metamorphosed Dendritic Ice
Metamorphosed Ice-Star Blades Without Obvious Seed Twig. Panels between 2 and 2:30 and between 9:30 and 11 are recrystallized mosaics. Blue color was supplied by ice, and red, orange and greenish gray by sub ice vegetation.
Branch Upon Metamorphosed Ice
Moss And Leaf Upon Near Shore Blue Ice
Golden Debris On Metamorphosed Ice
Blue Blades And Twig on Late Fall Leaves
Silvery Leaf And Metamorphosed Ice Blades That Partially Covered The Leaf. The blades were adrift when they became fixed in a secondary freeze. Red color is from oak leaves beneath the ice.
Transparent Ice Star
Silver Blades On Red With Seed Twig: A few blades had drifted from the original cluster that grew from the seed twig and then were fixed within a secondary freeze of "black" ice. The red color is from oak leaves beneath the ice.
Melting Ice Blades Among Fall Leaves
Silver Star On Red. At left, within the widest wedge, is a recrystallized mosaic, evident by the sharp edges within this new form of sheaths.
Teal Star Grown From Moss-Covered Twig In A Matrix Of Black Ice.
Teal Star With Moss: This is a detail from the previous image. The rounded blades give the appearance of a butterfly.
Radial Blades Over Orange Leaves In A Matrix Of Black Ice: The blades at lower left and upper right appear to be of an older formation. Those at lower right likely formed within the newer matrix.
Triangle of Elliptical Capillary Fringes Indicating Melt Pools Within Ridges Formed Within A Matrix Of Black Ice. Image acquired 1 January 2024 during a thaw.
Red-Blue-Green Star Arms And Inter-arm Mosaics.
Blue Capillary Elliptical Fringes indicating Melt Pools On A Black Ice Matrix Among Fall Leaves
Blue Capillary Swirls On Ice With Green-Veined Leaf
Fall Leaves Beneath Blue Capillary Ellipses On A Black Ice Matrix: The ice covering the leaves was probably about a millimeter thick.
Pipkrakes Extruded From "Tight" Clay: The clay wasn't porous and so the ice extruded through the surface rather than expand within the soil. These extrusions overlooked the north end of my pond. They are sometimes referred to as needle ice. They were about 10 cm long.
Five-fingered metamorphosed pond-ice blades
Blue Pond Ice Blades And Shards Of Blades, Fall Leaves And A Log Impregnated With Blue Ice: Image taken January 1, 2024, after yet another early winter warm spell.
Yellow Leaf below pond black-ice matrix containing adrift blue transparent blades: Very thin diaphanous ice blades upon the leaf appear like a dragonfly, the "tail" of which was the host twig for seeding this once-star.
Detail from previous image showing the blue blades on a twig head.
Blue Blades On Twig Head expanded from previous two images. The blue blades were adrift when they became frozen into a secondary freeze of "black" ice.
Multiple metamorphosed pond-ice stars, of which I can count 17.
First detail from the previous image of metamorphosed blades in late fall
Second detail of previous image of metamorphosed dendritic ice. The red color is from a leaf beneath the thin ice.
White Moss, Blue Blades and Silvery Silvery metamorphosed mosaic. An asian lady beetle is within the moss. This image has too many focal points.
Mid-Fall Ephemeral Thin Ice: This formed during 14 November, 2024, after a night of radiational cooling of Chambers Pond, West Lebanon, NH. Speckles were air bubbles within the thin clear ice. Note the 5-needle cluster, from an eastern white pine.
Kinds of Blue: Mid-Fall Twinnings And Metamorphosed Pond Ice Mosaic: This formed after a night of radiational cooling on 14 Nov, 2024. Bright dot at lower right is the top of the twig that hosted ice seeds which grew into the radial arms above and below it. Arm at 1100 (clock analogy) had at four major twinnings. Image awarded Best in Photography at Kent Gallery, Kent, CT., spring 2025.
Clear fall ice 14 Nov 2024, with capillary fringes around leaves, twigs and ice pieces.
Silver: Silvery pond-ice blades on Chambers Pond, early November, 2025
Capillary fringes on early pond-ice, Chambers Pond, November, 2025Fringed:
Iceshock: Early November pond-ice star on Chambers Pond, November, 2025. The asymmetry caused by a lack of blades at right appears like a shock wave impinging on the star formation.
Filamentous: Advanced decay and recrystallization of pond-ice star mosaics, Chambers Pond, November, 2025. Many "spikes" appear to be a secondary growth.
Franconia Twins, mid-April, 2025. I found this ice in a small poll within an open field near Easton Road, Franconia, New Hampshire.
Gershwin: Naming this Rhapsody in Blue sounded too corny. This was a frozen puddle about 5 cm in diameter and situated along the muddy shore of Chambers Pond in West Lebanon, NH. I photographed it on. 29 November, 2025, the last of four freeze-thaw episodes, after which snow and ice covered the pond until March. Note all the fine fractures.