Ice Fingers of the Arctic That Ends Anything It Touches

Bright Side

Have you ever heard of the icy phenomenon called "brinicles"? 🧊❄️ They’re like frozen fingers of death that form under the sea in the Arctic and Antarctic, stretching down from the ice above. When super-salty water escapes from the ice, it freezes the seawater around it, creating these eerie, icy tubes. Anything in their path—like sea stars or urchins—gets trapped in ice and doesn’t stand a chance. 🌊🦀 It’s like nature’s chilling magic trick, and scientists are still amazed at how it works. If you love discovering bizarre and fascinating things about our planet, this is something you need to see! 🌍✨  Credit: Earth's Great Seasons / BBC America Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00You're down in one of those polar seas where the brinicle, eerily called the finger of

00:05death, is born.

00:07It's a strange, almost otherworldly place, the deep ocean, where light barely reaches.

00:15Everything down there seems to have adapted to survive in darkness and intense cold.

00:20But even those truly hardy creatures aren't ready for what a brinicle can do.

00:26When that briny, super-cooled water starts dripping down, a ghost story begins.

00:35The formation of these brinicles is a fascinating process, like an underwater science experiment

00:40happening in real time.

00:42We know that when seawater freezes, it doesn't freeze like fresh water.

00:46Because of all the salt in it, it has to push out impurities to form the pure ice that floats

00:51at the top.

00:53This means the salty water, or brine, ends up trapped in channels and pockets within

00:58the ice.

00:59When it sees the light of day for the first time, a brinicle resembles a pipe of ice reaching

01:04down from the underside of a layer of sea ice.

01:07At first, a brinicle is very fragile, and its walls are thin.

01:12But the continuous flow of colder brine supports the growth of the brinicle.

01:16It also prevents it from melting.

01:18Otherwise, this process would be inevitable, caused by the brinicle's contact with less

01:23cold surrounding water.

01:25As the ice accumulates and the walls become thicker, the brinicle becomes more stable.

01:32Over time, the brine trapped inside gets squeezed out through tiny cracks, dripping down in

01:36this cold, heavy plume.

01:39Once that cold brine starts flowing downward, it begins freezing the seawater around it

01:43into a sheath of ice.

01:46That's why instead of melting as it hits the water below, it forms this icy casing

01:51that protects it, helping it grow longer and stronger.

01:55The brinicle keeps moving forward inch by inch, and this crazy downward spiral is almost

02:00unstoppable.

02:02And when it touches down on the seafloor, uh-oh, that's when the trouble begins for

02:06anything living nearby.

02:10Imagine being one of those creatures on the seafloor, maybe a sea star or an unsuspecting

02:15urchin just trying to make it through the day.

02:18And all of a sudden, you see this icy tentacle nearing you.

02:21It isn't just some cold water coming down, it's basically a net of ice moving down and

02:26spreading out.

02:28There's no escape, no way to predict its coming, and no chance for survival.

02:34It's a slow-motion natural disaster in action.

02:39When a brinicle reaches the seafloor, it continues to accumulate ice while the surrounding water

02:43freezes over.

02:45The brine keeps traveling across the seafloor in a down-slope direction.

02:50Once it reaches the lowest possible point, it stops and pools.

02:55But don't let the danger distract you from how beautiful brinicles are, well, in their

03:00own creepy way.

03:02They look like something you'd see in a dream, elegant, twisting ice tubes reaching down,

03:07perfectly symmetrical, and totally random.

03:10Filming a brinicle is no easy task because they're delicate when they first form.

03:15Just the motion from a nearby current or a sudden change in temperature can snap them

03:19off, ending the show before it really starts.

03:23So scientists who managed to capture brinicles on film in 2011 actually got incredibly lucky.

03:29It was the first time the world got to see this icy finger descending and freezing everything

03:35it touched, and it changed our understanding of polar ecosystems.

03:41Brinicles can reach quite impressive sizes.

03:43Sometimes they can stretch for several feet.

03:45Their size depends on the conditions of the water and ice above.

03:49The slower the water movement and the colder the temperature, the bigger and stronger a

03:54brinicle can grow.

03:56But if the water's too deep or if there's too much movement in the current, the brinicle

04:00is likely to break apart.

04:03It needs just the right balance to survive long enough to touch down and freeze over

04:08the ocean floor.

04:10For creatures living on the seafloor, brinicles are like invisible booby traps, only instead

04:15of avoiding a net, they're avoiding an expanding ice cage.

04:20Starfish and sea urchins might not have big brains, but they have a basic survival instinct

04:25to crawl away from danger.

04:27Sadly, with brinicles, they're usually caught completely off guard.

04:32One second they're minding their own business.

04:34The next, an icy sheet is closing in around them, trapping them where they are and freezing

04:39them almost instantly.

04:43It's hard not to feel sympathy for these creatures, right?

04:45You watch footage of a brinicle in action and you see a starfish just stop it.

04:51One moment it's moving slowly along the sand, and then it's frozen in place, totally helpless.

04:57It's like watching a train wreck in slow-mo.

05:00Luckily, brinicles present danger only to smaller marine lifeforms like sea urchins

05:04and starfish.

05:06Bigger animals like seals or whales, or humans who happen to go diving in the ocean at the

05:11frigid poles, brinicles are totally harmless.

05:16At the same time, for scientists, this tough natural phenomenon offers a fascinating insight

05:21into how life adapts, or fails to adapt for that matter, in extreme environments.

05:27And it gets even better!

05:29A brinicle might just be the perfect setup for life to begin.

05:34Researchers are now looking at these super-salty ice tubes as not just fatal traps, but potentially

05:40as sources of life.

05:42This theory isn't just science fiction, it's rooted in actual research.

05:47Here's how it goes.

05:48The brine channels in sea ice are full of tiny, confined spaces.

05:53Those are exactly the kind of places where chemicals can get trapped, concentrated, and

05:58start interacting in interesting ways.

06:01It's like setting up a mini-lab where the building blocks of life can come together

06:05and create something new.

06:09Scientists think this process of salt rejection in sea ice could have actually helped the

06:13first bits of life appear.

06:16Some researchers even think that this process might be happening right now on icy moons

06:21like Europa, Ganymede, or Enceladus, where there might have been frozen seas beneath

06:26thick ice layers.

06:29Just imagine it, brinicles forming in other worlds of our solar system, laying down the

06:34foundations for extraterrestrial life.

06:37And all thanks to the same icy process that creates these fingers of death here on Earth.

06:44One way scientists describe brinicles is by comparing them to chemical gardens.

06:50Have you ever done one of those experiments where you mix metal salts into a solution

06:54and watch them produce plant-like structures?

06:57Well, you can observe a similar chemical process when a brinicle is in action.

07:03In the cold, saline-rich brine of a brinicle, certain reactions could kick off to create

07:07amino acids or other building blocks of life.

07:11It's wild to think that something so dangerous could have also helped shape our world, or

07:17could be creating other forms of life elsewhere.

07:21In both cases, whether on Earth or another planet, these icy chemical reactions might

07:27be the first step toward the formation of simple lifeforms.

07:31It's a kind of alchemy where ice and salt water mix to create something more than the

07:36sum of their parts.

07:38This is one reason why scientists are so eager to study brinicles.

07:43Each one could hold a tiny clue about how life begins, survives, or fails under extreme

07:50conditions.

07:52Something as mesmerizing and weird but at the same time simple as brinicles hints at

07:57bigger questions.

07:59How did life start on Earth?

08:01What are the conditions needed for life to survive in extreme environments?

08:05Could icy structures like these exist in other parts of our solar system or beyond, creating

08:10similar conditions that might one day give rise to alien life?

08:16As much as they look like a silent threat reaching out from the ice, brinicles are also

08:21reminders of how beautifully complex and interconnected our world is.

08:26They may seem like simple fingers of ice, but they hold secrets that touch on everything

08:31from ecology to chemistry to the origins of life itself.

08:36So next time you hear about the ocean, remember that deep below in the darkest, coldest waters,

08:42something incredible and a little bit terrifying is happening right at this moment!

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