Little ice needle designer: How is the exquisite stone pattern formed?The pattern on Mars is also the same?

Thousands of small "ice needles" may explain the mysterious stone pattern on the earth and Mars on Mars

These pragmatic patterns come from a seemingly impossible designer

Exquisite stone pattern created by ice needles

On this planet, the pattern of some Zen garden is so beautiful that their existence is attributed to a beautiful designer: tens of millions of "ice needles". From eddy current to circular to neat ranks, each exquisite landscape design is created by gathered in the same size of stones.

The new research published in the National Academy of Sciences records the first record of how these ice needles create exquisite and complicated patterns in different landforms. When the ice needle freezes, they push the small stones to the side or make the stones close to each other. In the long run, these stones gathered in the same area to form a pattern. The co -author of this research Bernard Harlem -at the same time he is also a geologist at the University of Washington -said: This record confirms the reason for the relationship between ice needles and stone patterns for more than a century. Moreover, this research may also explain the origin of the pattern on Mars -the origin of the pattern.

When the temperature difference between the humid soil and the air, the ice needle will emerge. At night, some specific types of soil will "exhale" to reduce the corresponding temperature; at the same time, the water in the soil will be pulled upward When moisture rises to the ground and encounters cold air, they will become ice and form a needle -shaped ice crystal.

"These ice needles are sometimes eye -catching," Harlem told "Life Science": "And they are very common." If you have walked through the "crispy" ground in the morning, then it is likely that you will be unconsciously unconscious. I have broken some ice needles.

For a long time, scientists have associated these miniature ice sculptures with the linear and vortex complicated patterns that appear from time to time on the ground of pebble, such as the striped landforms around the Hawaii volcano.

Ice needles formed by moist and porous soil (picture source: Quan-Xing Li)

What they don't know is how Ice outlines these patterns without any living. So they started the investigation.

Researchers evenly cover the flat soil of 1 square foot (about 0.4 meters) of 1 square feet (about 0.4 meters) of small stones, and then they perform 30 rounds of freezing operations on this experiment, so that the ice needle can form and melt. Essence Due to the subtle imbalance of the environment, such as the slope, these ups and downs of ice needles are slowly not detected to push the small stones aside. And because a bunch of stones are much heavier than a single, when the stone accumulates a certain density, the ice needle cannot be pushed. At the end of the experiment, the scientific research team found that the pattern similar to the Zen garden had begun to form: on the one hand, there was a stone pile, and the other side was empty.

Left: Soil ring in the Norwegian Wanswalbart Islands. Midtix: The stone line of the Monakia volcano in Hawaii. Greenland is not named stone stripes.

"So this trend of moving the stone into a stone pattern is very, very strong," Harlem said. The stones on the flat ground often form a ring and vortex, while the stones on the small slope are more likely to form the form.

Not all soils are porous enough to form ice needles. According to the research published in the "Arctic and Alps Research" magazine, in general, the effect of ice needles rich in seluds or organic matter for forming ice needles is the best. Similarly, not all climate can produce ice needles. Only those where the land is moist and air can be cooled quickly.

For the patterns inspected by NASA (National Aerospace Agency), the Mars probe "Curiosity", the experts believe that there is a more exquisite similar cycle behind it. However, according to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the moisture content in Mars's atmosphere is very low, and there are not many signs of micro -ice crystals in the soil of this red planet. When the soil is warmed up, it will swell slightly, and it will shrink again when it cools down.

A stone circle on Mars (picture source: NASA / JPL)

Although this process is far less intense as the ice needle push stone, the accumulation can also displace the small stones and dust. Harlem said: On the earth, this exquisite pattern formed in the process of soil expansion and contraction like Mars may not be noticed, but on Mars, "because there is no other except the wind, there is no other, there is no other, there is no other, there is no other, there is no other, there is no other, there is no other, no other, there is no other, there is no other, there is no other, no other, there is no other, there is no other, there is no other, no other, there is no other, there is no other, there is no other, no other, there is no other, there is no other, there is no other, no other, there is no other, there is no other, there is no other, no other, there is no other, there is no other, there is no other, no other, there is no other, there is no other, there is no other, no other, there is no other, there is no other, no other, there is no other, there is no other, there is no other other, there is no other other, there is no other other, there is no other other, there is no other other, there is no other, there is no other. So we can see this kind of landform. "

Unfortunately, scientists have not found any Mars ice needles so far.

By: Joanna Thompson

Fy: Ken Diber

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