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For the first time, researchers have captured the formation of one of the fingers of death under the icy continent and how it freezes everything in its path.
The waters around Antarctica with a temperature of -2°C may seem like a very unfriendly place, but it is only for humans. Most of the sea creatures living here find such conditions quite comfortable. In fact, life thrives in these waters, but only until the so-called "finger of death" appears from under the sea ice, writes IFLScience.
In a new series of the BBC's Great Times of the Earth, the film crew managed to capture the formation of one such "finger of death" as it slowly reached the seabed, and when it touched it, it froze everything in its path.
Such footage may seem alien, but in fact there is no extraterrestrial activity in it - it is a brinkel - a tube of ice that contains brine and grows in just a few hours.
How are brinicles formed?
During the formation of sea ice, the salts in the sea water do not become part of this structure at all. Instead, they form pockets of cold brine inside the ice that don't freeze due to the high salt content. If this brine gets a chance to escape into the water beneath the ice of Antarctica, it will eventually sink because the salt content makes it much denser than the water it enters.
In addition, the brine is much colder than the surrounding water, causing the flow to sink down and literally freeze the water around it. This is how brinkils are formed. But the story does not end there. As soon as the ice stalactite reaches the sea floor. It can continue to spread, freezing the ground and anything in its path.
Footage of the finger of death growing
Documenting the process of formation of the "finger of death" under the ice of Antarctica is not an easy task. Scientists have been observing icy stalactites for a long time, but only recently the film crew working on the series "Frozen Planet" was able to record this process for the first time in history.
According to the producer of the series, Catherine Jeffs, due to the extreme cold and the need to constantly change air cylinders, the divers simply could not stay underwater long enough to record the growth of the "finger of death" under the ice of the icy continent.
Fortunately, technology does not stand still. As a result, scientists used an underwater camera that was able to take a frame-by-frame picture. Previously, such equipment simply did not exist, and therefore scientists could not record this process. Now they have finally succeeded.
