Experimental modelling of the growth of tubular ice brinicles from brine flows under sea ice

Abstract

We present laboratory experiments on the growth of a tubular ice structure surrounding a plume of cold brine that descends under gravity into water with a higher freezing point. Brinicles are geological analogues of these structures found under sea ice in the polar regions on Earth. Brinicles are hypothesized to exist in the oceans of other celestial bodies, and being environments rich in minerals, serve a potentially analogous role as an ecosystem on icy-ocean worlds to that of submarine hydrothermal vents on Earth.