Figure 108. Snow puddles. 



Naturally, all the foreign matter in the snow and ice is gradually washed off into the deepest 

 parts of each individual water puddle. Organic life also accumulates and develops in these hollows. 

 Due to the dark color of these accumulations, the absorption of heat is here intensified. These deep 

 places gradually begin to grow in a vertical direction and when the ice temperature has risen suf- 

 ficiently so that the fresh water does not freeze in the cracks, the bottom of the hollow finally 

 reaches the sea water. Then the whole mass of snow water flows off precipitously under the ice, 

 forming torrents and whirlpools as it goes. In one or two days the surface of the ice appears to be- 

 come dry and come out from under the water. There remain on the ice surface only a few isolated 

 water puddles, some above the sea level, (no through channels are present, hence the water is 

 fresh), and some at sea level (through channels are present, water is saline). 



The surface of the ice, which was levelled off at the start of thawing by the packing of the 

 snow hills, presents an extremely irregular form after the flowing off of over-ice water. It is 

 pitted with hollows and has a curvature typical of the washing process. After the ice dries, cracks 

 often appear and the central parts of the ice under the water puddles — the thinnest parts — break 

 apart and float off. 



The appearance of surface water and its subsequent running off occurs most intensively in 

 littoral ice. Here the melting begins earliest due to the dark surface of the shore and the dirtying 

 of the coastal ice. The water formed from the snow cover on the ice unites with the water of the 

 coastal flow. As a result there are formed the "coastal fringes of water" (saberegi) which attain 

 a width of 5 km in certain shallow regions, for example, along the Lyakhovski Islands. With pas- 

 sage of time, the ice under the coastal water fringe is more and more washed away and the coastal 

 fringe becomes a "thorough coastal water fringe. " This in turn, is transformed into a "coastal 

 polynya. " 



302 



