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Because ice is less dense than liquid water, it floats, and this prevents bottom-up freezing of the bodies of water. Instead, a sheltered environment for animal and plant life is formed beneath the floating ice, which protects the underside from short-term weather extremes such as wind chill .
Regular, hexagonal ice is also less dense than liquid water—upon freezing, the density of water decreases by about 9%. [36] [e] These peculiar effects are due to the highly directional bonding of water molecules via the hydrogen bonds: ice and liquid water at low temperature have comparatively low-density, low-energy open lattice structures.
As a result, the large hexagonal rings leave almost enough room for another water molecule to exist inside. This gives naturally occurring ice its rare property of being less dense than its liquid form. The tetrahedral-angled hydrogen-bonded hexagonal rings are also the mechanism that causes liquid water to be densest at 4 °C.
This occurs because ice (solid water) is less dense than liquid water, as shown by the fact that ice floats on water. At a molecular level, ice is less dense because it has a more extensive network of hydrogen bonding which requires a greater separation of water molecules. [6] Other exceptions include antimony and bismuth. [8] [9]
When ice is being formed in a cold climate like Antarctica, the cold temperatures separate the molecular bonds of the water causing it to become less dense. However, because water increases its volume by about 9% when frozen, this makes the ice less dense than the water which is why glaciers float.
Because ice is less dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface (as does fresh water ice). Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oceans. Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oceans.
A recent study pitted an ultra-processed diet against a nutrient-dense one, with meals matched for calories, sugar, fat, fiber, and macronutrients. People were told to eat as much as they wanted.
Denser water is below lighter water, representing a stable stratification. The pycnocline is the layer where the rate of change in density is largest. Ocean stratification is generally stable because warmer water is less dense than colder water, and most heating is from the sun, which directly affects only the surface layer.