You must have come across videos of people jumping into a frozen lake on social media. So, while watching the video, did you wonder why only the surfaces of these lakes were frozen?
Actually in general The water begins to freeze from the surface. The water remaining at the bottom is in liquid form.
This situation is somewhat knowledge of chemistry It requires. But don’t worry, we will explain it for you in the simplest way!
The density of water decreases when it freezes.
Let’s go back in time a little with you. Do you remember this topic that we always covered in chemistry classes? Decreasing density of waterIt emerges thanks to the hollow and regular crystal structures it forms while solidifying.
Water molecules are actually oxygen and with covalent bonds between hydrogen atoms are very tightly interconnected. There are also weak hydrogen bonds between molecules. These bonds allow water to gain flexibility when in liquid form.
As the temperature decreases, the kinetic energy of water molecules also decreases.
But water, It behaves abnormally at temperatures below 4°C. As the temperature decreases, water molecules increase volume by forming void structures instead of moving closer to each other. In doing this, water crystallizes and forms regular hexagonal structures. You can guess that there will be gaps between these structures.
This porous structure causes ice to form when water freezes. This situation, When water reaches its freezing point As it crystallizes, it leaves voids inside, resulting in a lower density.
This ensures that the water remains on the surface when it freezes.
In other words, water starts to freeze from the surface, When water reaches its freezing point This occurs thanks to the hollow and regular crystal structures it creates. These structures cause the density of water to decrease and remain on the surface when it freezes.
In this situation in bodies of water such as lakescausing freezing to start from shallower areas and progress to the surface center.
In short, because the density of ice is low While frozen water remains on the surface; The denser water is located in the lower parts.
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