Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Bogobam. Here. Should Hell ever freeze over,
Speaker 1: it'll probably happen right after Niagara Falls does. The Roaring
Speaker 1: Landmarks sits on the border of Upstate New York and Ontario, Canada.
Speaker 1: It consists of three separate waterfalls, with the tallest being
Speaker 1: a hundred and sixty seven feet that's fifty one high.
Speaker 1: These cascading waters have attracted the odd There devil over
Speaker 1: the years. We've all heard the stories about thrill seekers
Speaker 1: and barrels, but most visitors simply come to admire the
Speaker 1: falls natural beauty. In the wintertime, the falls get extra
Speaker 1: gorgeous because I see formations often appear on or around them. Yet,
Speaker 1: despite claims to the contrary, Niagara Falls doesn't ever fully freeze.
Speaker 1: And it turns out that freezing Niagara Falls solid would
Speaker 1: be quite a feat. During the winter, a whopping twenty
Speaker 1: two million gallons or five million liters of water tumble
Speaker 1: over the falls per minute, and scientists say it would
Speaker 1: be extremely difficult to freeze that much fast flowing water.
Speaker 1: Even in sub zero temperatures, the falls can appear frozen
Speaker 1: when the thick mist that they produced freezes as it
Speaker 1: accumulates on the trees, boulders, and railings that surround the falls. Also,
Speaker 1: there are days when a thin layer of frozen spray
Speaker 1: and miss hardens over the falls themselves, right beneath this
Speaker 1: icy blanket, though you'll still find plenty of liquid water
Speaker 1: flowing on its usual downward path. A bottom line, Niagara
Speaker 1: Falls isn't going to freeze all the way through anytime soon.
Speaker 1: But that's just one landmark. Let's talk about some other waterfalls.
Speaker 1: On a cold morning in January, physics professor Michael J.
Speaker 1: Ruise and independent researcher Charles Cranford filmed a sixty five
Speaker 1: foot that's twenty waterfall in North Carolina that had mostly
Speaker 1: frozen Trickling over. Some of the ice was a stream
Speaker 1: of super cooled water. Super Cooled water is water that's
Speaker 1: managed to remain liquid below its normal freezing temperature, that
Speaker 1: being thirty two degrees fahrenheit or zero degrees celsius. It
Speaker 1: was significantly colder outside when Louise and Cranford recorded their video.
Speaker 1: The local temperature was just five degrees fahrenheit or negative
Speaker 1: fifteen celsius. Under those conditions, even the super cooled water
Speaker 1: couldn't stay liquefied for long. The duo captured the Carolina
Speaker 1: waterfall freezing into ice in real time, and not just
Speaker 1: any ice. The water was hardening into a clumping collection
Speaker 1: of tiny needle shaped crystals. Meteorologists call that frazzle ice,
Speaker 1: often associated with turbulent and super cooled water. Frazzle ice
Speaker 1: can also develop when mist droplets freeze. This ice is
Speaker 1: a common site around and waterfalls, like the ones at
Speaker 1: California's you Semity National Park during below freezing weather, When
Speaker 1: frazzle ice clings to a rocky surface, it can become
Speaker 1: a platform for even more ice to build upon. Waterfall
Speaker 1: icicles can also build up or down, found in many
Speaker 1: regions of the globe, from France to Utah, they can
Speaker 1: take many forms. You can find ice stalactites dangling off
Speaker 1: of cliffs or ice stalagmites ascending from the ground below,
Speaker 1: and if a lowering stalactite touches a rising stalagmite, you
Speaker 1: get a column like ice pillar. A note that these
Speaker 1: icicles and columns can be dangerous as they can suddenly collapse.
Speaker 1: But if you do see I see stalactites, stalacmites, or
Speaker 1: pillars gathered around your favorite waterfall. It doesn't mean the
Speaker 1: whole waterfall has frozen solid. That only happens when the
Speaker 1: source of the waterfall freezes through. Whether that's a creek,
Speaker 1: a stream, or a river, the larger and faster flowing
Speaker 1: a given source is, the smaller its chances of becoming frozen.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Mark Mancini and produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other
Speaker 1: fast flowing topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Brain
Speaker 1: Stuff is production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
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