Experimental Study of the Rotation of Ice Markers on the Water Surface

Laboratory experiments confirmed the phenomenon of spontaneous rotation of melting ice on the water surface. It was found that the rotation speed increases with the height of the liquid. Using the technique of underpainting, the fact of vortex flow occurrence directly under the ice block in experiments on placing the ice block on the free surface of the resting liquid was established. Due to internal structural inhomogeneities of ice caused by various reasons, local areas called melting centres are formed on its surface, near which the melting process occurs more intensively than on average over the surface. It is shown that the presence of several melting centres can give the ice disc not only translational but also rotational motion. The results of the experiments will be important, first of all, for a better understanding of the formation of convective currents arising in the process of ice melting, and can be used to predict the thermal and dynamic regime of oceans, seas, and lakes.