November, 2013 | Mallemaroking

Mark Brandon • November 19, 2013

I came across this brilliant Deep Sea News blog post about oil on troubled waters. It talks at length about how a surface film of oil damps out higher frequency surface waves and only the low frequency waves can propagate. The net effect is the sea feels calmer as the breaking waves are damped out.

The same thing happens in rough seas when ice forms. I took the picture below in Bellingshausen Sea.

A grease ice slick in the Bellingshausen Sea Antarctica

What you are looking at is very thin slick made up of sea ice crystals in the open ocean (called grease ice). The layer of crystals only allows the low frequency waves to propagate – so you see these odd looking slowly propagating ripples.

…continue reading →

Posted in Science. Tags: Antarctic, polar, satellite, sea ice on November 19, 2013 by Mark Brandon.