Yukimarimos!

We experienced an unusual ice effect at Pole yesterday called Yukimarimos.  They are naturally formed delicate frost balls that are blown across the surface of the ice by the wind. Our yuki's were small because our wind was a little strong, but many were as big as gumballs (update: early this morning yukis the size of golf balls were gathered in the depressions outside the staton - a few hours later they were all gone).  There were millions of them blowing across the ice yesterday, gathering in depressions as if hiding from the wind and then moving on when disturbed.  They are very delicate wisps of surface frost that have been set in motion by the wind and become spherical as they travel across the surface gathering up more frost.  I think you can see how delicate they are in the second picture. These are a pile of yukis the size of gumballs that have gathered in a depression, out of the wind...

Yukimarimos were first noted by Japanese scientists in 1995 and they seem to form on high altitude ice sheets in Antarctica from time to time.  "Yuki" is Japanese for snow and "marimo" is a a ball-like plant found in northern hemisphere lakes, so yukimarimo means "snow-ball" or "snow-roller".  When the light is right you can see how delicate and diaphenous they are...

The little yukis seem almost alive as they roll across the ice sheet, scurrying away and blowing around you as you stand gazing at them.  If you simply look across the ice sheet you don't notice them rolling along, but if you look down at the ones scurrying around your feet and then slowly raise your gaze you can see that they are rolling along the surface for hundreds of yards in every direction.  As you walk along the ice the eddys around your feet release even more of them and they roll away from you downwind like they have taken flight.  The yukis below are about the size of M&Ms and you can see even smaller ones clinging to the walls of the depression...

If it hadn't been so danged cold out there at -70 I could have watched them for hours but ten minutes was all I could take.  Even then I got a frost-niped finger on my camera hand (you can’t push the shutter button with mittens on).  So I hope everyone appreciates these pictures, I suffered for them.

Here are some other pictures from the original researchers who first observed and named them...

http://homepage3.nifty.com/takaokameda/en/yukimrimo_en2.html