Ice spike or stalagmite in ice cube tray. What the Hell?!

[kkawecki89]

This may happen if a bubble pops, causing a thin stream of water to shoot up. Since the water is so thin, it instantly freezes. It could also be caused by what johnla said.

[fanshawful]

I am getting these too. I use store bought water instead of tap water. What about all the other folks here who are getting 'spikes', what kind of water do you use?

[Abercrombie7131]

@fanshawful I got the same thing yesterday when I made ice cubes. I put them in around noon and checked them at 5pm and noticed the spikes. I just used regular tap water. I did wash the ice tray before I made new ice so I dunno if that had anything to do with it.

[fanshawful]

I am getting these too. I use store bought water instead of tap water. What about all the other folks here who are getting 'spikes', what kind of water do you use?

[toddrod99]

Johnla has the most logical and micky1980 the least. The temperature of the water and the rate of freeze is the likely candidate. So Jhonla is the winner. :^)

[Aliendear]

I have heard of these "Ice Spikes", my freezer recently grew one in a ice cube tray. naturally, it's supposed to stay frozen... but when I looked in the freezer a day or two later, the "spike" in this frozen ice cube is gone! Explain that.

[nwakita604]

Okay, I just to pull out my ice cube tray and saw... this! wtf.

I took a few pictures and vids of it. I'll post them when I have a change. Dude, seriously. what the hell?

[gareebee]

johnla is basically correct. It is called an 'ice spike'. Google up how they are formed. Check out my ice spike that formed on my deck. Very rare in nature. Possibly the largest ever. I have yet to find another like it.

[twoboots4you]

This stuff blows my mind. something else that screws with me is, just about every time I pull a new ice cube tray out of the freezer there will be one mold that has a tinny ice cube in it, like 1/4 inch thick, that's all. but when I put them in I make sure every mold is full. how's this happen? do the other mold somehow wick the water out while it's freezing?

[johnla]

Water expands as it freezes.

Water freezes from the outside edges first and freezes towards its middle.

Water will freeze toward middle until there's just a little "hole" in the center that is unfrozen.. as the center starts to freeze and EXPAND, unfrozen water will be pushed up through the hole.

Water coming through the hole will freeze as more water is pushed through and create a funnel. Eventually funnel is fully frozen and closes off the hole leaving a spike of ice.

[ruco13113]

@johnla AGREED water freezes from inside out, but explain the angle. 

[johnla]

@ruco13113 chance.

[ruco13113]

@johnla 'chance'?... huh?... I meant: why then would the water progress in an angle like that and not straight up? I remember first seeing this more regularly in about 2003 or 2004, one HOT ASS summer... then it just STOPPED... I remember we were having lots of solar flares at that time too. a couple of times cell service was interrupted for all carriers...

[quik37silver]

This is NOT from being placed at an angle, and this is NOT from any water dripping on it from above. This is just an interesting physics phenomena that I have yet to fully understand. I get these all of the time in my ice cube trays. The trays are placed perfectly flat on the shelf. Of the 12 cubes, usually only about 2-3 form these bizarre spikes, usually 1-3 inches long. WIERD!!

[rocknut420]

hey thanks for the opinion. But actually the tray was placed completely horizontal and if there was water dripping from the top that would mean the freezer is not working properly. The air temperature is about 20 degrees so there's really no way for water to fall onto the tray, let alone falling at onto the tray at a 45 degree angle. I've also heard that the vibrations from the motor could cause the molecules to react differently while in the freeze process making a spikey column of ice.

[Mcky1980]

quite simple explanation, the spike has formed by the tray being left in the freezer at an angle, and above was placed an item that was dripping liquid, hence why there is a build up at the bottom of the spike.