Author(s): Aleksey Marchenko; Knut Hoyland
Linked Author(s): Knut Hoyland
Keywords: Sea ice ridges; Consolidation; Overcooling; Melting; Phase changes; Laboratory experiment
Abstract: Ice ridges are important ice features as they give high loads on ships and structures and they constitute an important, but unknown, fraction of the Arctic sea ice volume. Two laboratory experiments on thermodynamic consolidation of sea ice ridges are described in the paper. In the experiments the surface temperature of ice ridges was changed, while the water temperature below the ridge remains almost constant. Ice ridges were completely consolidated to the end of both experiments. Vertical gradient of the ice rubble temperature increased in the upper parts of the ridge keels at the cooling stages of the experiments. Below this level the temperature profiles of the rubble were closed to vertical, and the ice rubble was warmer the ambient water. The overcooling and mixing of sea water inside ice rubble below the consolidated layer explain the nonlinear vertical temperature profiles in the ice ridges.
Year: 2026