Ice is water frozen into a solid state.

It can appear transparent or opaque blui sh-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions. The a ddition of other materials such as soil may further alter its appearance. Ice appears naturally in forms of snowflakes, hail, icicles, ice spikes and cand les, glaciers, pack ice, frost, and polar ice caps. It is an important component of the global climate and plays an important role in the water cycle. Furthermo re, ice has numerous cultural applications, from ice cooling of drinks to winter sports to the art of ice sculpting. The molecules in solid ice may be arranged in numerous different ways, called ph ases, depending on the temperature and pressure. Typically, ice is the phase kno wn as ice Ih, which is the most abundant of the varying solid phases on Earth's surface The most common phase transition to ice Ih occurs when liquid water is c ooled below 0C (273.15K, 32F) at standard atmospheric pressure. It can also deposi t from vapour with no intervening liquid phase, such as in the formation of fros t. The word is derived from Old English is, which in turn stems from Proto-Germanic isaz. Contents 1 Characteristics 1.1 Slipperiness 2 Formation 2.1 Ice pellets 2.2 Hail 2.3 Snowflakes 2.4 Diamond dust 3 Production 3.1 Ice harvesting 3.2 Commercial production 4 Uses 4.1 Sports 4.2 Other uses 5 Ice and transportation 6 Phases 7 Other ices 8 See also 9 References 10 External links Characteristics Crystal structure of hexagonal ice. Grey dashed lines indicate hydrogen bonds. As a naturally-occurring crystalline inorganic solid with an ordered structure, ice is considered a mineral.[1] It possesses a regular crystalline structure bas ed on the molecule of water, which consists of a single oxygen atom covalently b onded to two hydrogen atoms, or H-O-H. However, many of the physical properties of water and ice are controlled by the formation of hydrogen bonds between adjac ent oxygen and hydrogen atoms; while it is a weak bond, it is nonetheless critic al in controlling the structure of both water and ice. An unusual property of ice frozen at atmospheric pressure is that the solid is a pproximately 8.3% less dense than liquid water. The density of ice is 0.9167 g/c m3 at 0 C,[2] whereas water has a density of 0.9998 g/cm at the same temperature. Liquid water is densest, essentially 1.00 g/cm, at 4 C and becomes less dense as t he water molecules begin to form the hexagonal crystals[3] of ice as the freezin g point is reached. This is due to hydrogen bonding dominating the intermolecula r forces, which results in a packing of molecules less compact in the solid. Den

sity of ice increases slightly with decreasing temperature and has a value of 0. 9340 g/cm at -180 C (93 K).[4] The effect of expansion during freezing can be dramatic, and ice expansion is a basic cause of freeze-thaw weathering of rock in nature. It is also a common cau se of the flooding of houses when water pipes burst due to the pressure of expan ding water when it freezes. The result of this process is that ice (in its most common form) floats on liqui d water, which is an important feature in Earth's biosphere. It has been argued that without this property natural bodies of water would freeze, in some cases p ermanently, from the bottom up,[5] resulting in a loss of bottom-dependent anima l and plant life in fresh and sea water. Sufficiently thin ice sheets allow ligh t to pass through while protecting the underside from short-term weather extreme s such as wind chill. This creates a sheltered environment for bacterial and alg al colonies. When sea water freezes, the ice is riddled with brine-filled channe ls which sustain sympagic organisms such as bacteria, algae, copepods and anneli ds, which in turn provide food for animals such as krill and specialised fish li ke the Bald notothen, fed upon in turn by larger animals such as Emperor penguin s and Minke whales.[6] When ice melts, it absorbs as much energy as it would take to heat an equivalent mass of water by 80 C. During the melting process, the temperature remains const ant at 0 C. While melting, any energy added breaks the hydrogen bonds between ice (water) molecules. Energy becomes available to increase the thermal energy (tem perature) only after enough hydrogen bonds are broken that the ice can be consid ered liquid water. The amount of energy consumed in breaking hydrogen bonds in t he transition from ice to water is known as the heat of fusion. As with water, ice absorbs light at the red end of the spectrum preferentially a s the result of an overtone of an oxygen-hydrogen (O-H) bond stretch. Compared w ith water, this absorption is shifted toward slightly lower energies. Thus, ice appears blue, with a slightly greener tint than for liquid water. Since absorpti on is cumulative, the color effect intensifies with increasing thickness or if i nternal reflections cause the light to take a longer path through the ice.[7] Other colors can appear in the presence of light absorbing impurities, where the impurity is dictating the color rather than the ice itself. For instance, icebe rgs containing impurities (e.g., sediments, algae, air bubbles) can appear brown , grey or green.[7]