<p>I have seen things like this appear once or twice on cold winter mornings, a frozen spike of water from an ice-covered container or very small body of water (puddle).</p>

<p>I found the photo below at <a href="https://www.bbastrodesigns.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Mel Bartels and BBAstroDesigns
</a> and the caption reads:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>An ice spike in a bird bath following a cold snap December 2014</p>
</blockquote>

<p>What could be happening here? How might the two structures form like this, both tilted against gravity?</p>

<p><strong>update:</strong> Comments indicate that Wikipedia's article <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_spike" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Ice spike</a> gives an explanation based on the growth of a tube as the freezing process extends from top-down into the liquid, pushing remaining liquid out a hole and growing vertically from a central opening in the tube.</p>

<p>However, I can't see how this makes a spike with such a large angle with respect to vertical. It really looks to my untrained eye like this is a frozen jet, but that's not so likely as water is not so compressible.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/VEohV.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/VEohV.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-01-26T03:52:07.003Z
@gansub there it is in all it's glory, bird-bath and all. It's an ice-spike, I'll update the question accordingly. The large angle with respect to vertical shown in the question and [here](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ice-Spike.jpg) are particularly hard to understand, and this isn't really addressed in the Wikipedia article. I'll try to drill down on some of the references shown there. Thanks!
uhoh
<meteorology><ice>
What causes frozen "shooting water" spikes from ice covered water in the winter?
uhoh
# What causes frozen "shooting water" spikes from ice covered water in the winter?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-01-26)

I have seen things like this appear once or twice on cold winter mornings, a frozen spike of water from an ice-covered container or very small body of water (puddle).

I found the photo below at [Mel Bartels and BBAstroDesigns](https://www.bbastrodesigns.com/) and the caption reads:

> An ice spike in a bird bath following a cold snap December 2014

What could be happening here? How might the two structures form like this, both tilted against gravity?

**update:** Comments indicate that Wikipedia's article [Ice spike](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_spike) gives an explanation based on the growth of a tube as the freezing process extends from top-down into the liquid, pushing remaining liquid out a hole and growing vertically from a central opening in the tube.

However, I can't see how this makes a spike with such a large angle with respect to vertical. It really looks to my untrained eye like this is a frozen jet, but that's not so likely as water is not so compressible.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/VEohV.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/VEohV.jpg)

**Tags:** meteorology, ice

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: @gansub there it is in all it's glory, bird-bath and all. It's an ice-spike, I'll update the question accordingly. The large angle with respect to vertical shown in the question and [here](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ice-Spike.jpg) are particularly hard to understand, and this isn't really addressed in the Wikipedia article. I'll try to drill down on some of the references shown there. Thanks!  

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## 0 answers

