The natural formation of cavities along the thin edge of a snowflake can produce ornate bubbles inside the crystal, and under the right conditions these bubbles can facilitate the appearance of vibrant colours. The phenomenon known as “thin film interference” is seen every day, but no one has documented it in snowflakes better than I have. In this crystal, the different colours correspond to a different thickness of the ice. How does this create colours at all? By allowing the light to interfere with itself. Some wavelengths get amplified while others get diminished, and the resulting colours seem unnatural – but are completely real. It’s worth reading the full description of the phenomenon here: http://ift.tt/1z3WSGR
This is one smaller snowflake resting on top of a larger one. There are no signs that they grew this way, and it’s likely just a coincidence that I found them like this. While I often try to isolate just a single image for this project, sometimes multiple crystals carry a little extra depth and “charm”. What do you think?
There is also a small example of a “radial” branch growing up out of the surface of the smaller snowflake. Anchored right of center, this additional “leaf” began growing on the surface of the main snowflake from a secondary nucleation site. This could be caused by a super-cooled water droplet colliding and freezing on impact, and then this new crystal began to grow from the impact.
There will be more colourful crystals in this year’s project, but this one is quite unique amongst them. If you’re curious about all the ways you can discover colours within a snowflake (and how to photograph it properly), it’s all described within the pages of Sky Crystals: www.skycrystals.ca/
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