Laboratory experiments on crystal orientation in NaCl ice.

Abstract

Over extensive areas of the Arctic and Antarctic, the c-axes of the grains in a sea-ice sheet develop a preferred orientation in a particular direction in the horizontal plane, causing the physical and electromagnetic properties of the material to be anisotropic. In the presence of a current, the strength of the alignment increases rapidly with depth in the ice, the mean c-axis direction coinciding with the current direction. A significant reduction in alignment was produced when the flow was reduced to zero. -from Author