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Friday 10 September 2010

Ice and fire








If you only look at this blog because you are interested in that old ruin called Stonehenge, look away now! If, however, you are a normal human being you cannot, I'm sure, fail to be impressed by how similar flowing volcanic lava (under certain conditions) is to flowing glacier ice (under certain conditions). Quite amazing. Some lavas and glaciers do admittedly flow in different ways, depending on viscosity and other factors. Some lava is cooler and more brittle, and some is almost as runny as water if it is flowing at a very high temperature. Some ice is also much more "brittle" and flow characteristics will depend on temperature regime, gradient, bed lubrication etc .....

There now, isn't that interesting?

3 comments:

Dave C said...

and your point is???

BRIAN JOHN said...

No real point, Dave. Just celebrating the beauty of the natural world. Isn't that enough?

Come to think of it, I suppose I was intrigued by the thought that extremely hot and extremely cold flowing media follow the same physical laws. Which, I suppose, is as it should be.

welshlass said...

I concur with Brian. Just as the patterns in nature such as a spiral galaxy, a hurricane photographed from space, and the Chambered Nautilus have very similar forms.