GEOART DEUTSCHLAND

ICE COVERED OSTERSEE

Similarly, a stream feeding slightly warmer water into the lake Grosser Ostersee in south Germany may have been responsible for this rare unfrozen wedge on its surface. Unlike most other matter, water does not achieve its maximum density at the point at which it solidifies, i.e. at zero degrees centigrade, but at four degrees centigrade. Thus, when the cold winter air has reduced the surface temperature to four degrees, beeing heavier than the warm water beneath, this layer sinks. A circular motion is created: water at four degrees sinks to the bottom, displacing a new layer of water, which rises, cools, and again sinks downwards, until the temperature in the entire lake reaches four degrees. Only then does the circulation stop, allowing ice to form.

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