Academia, Science

I Give You The Icy Finger of Death

No this is not about a proctologist with cold hands. The “finger of death” is a reference to a brinicle (or brine icicle) that can be found beneath the Antarctic ice shelf. The Discovery Channel is showing this phenomenon on its special series, Frozen Planet.


The phenomenon is caused by denser brine of salt water descending through the lighter sea water. Brine has a lower freezing point and the interaction creates a cyclone effect with a brittle layer of ice. Very cool.

18 thoughts on “I Give You The Icy Finger of Death”

  1. i do love the manner in which you have framed this particular concern.

  2. Kauten says:”The deity, who is omniscient, knows all that is to come, ” The problem with this kind of justification of life is that it leaves out the most important aspect of it all; FREE WILL! Without it, we as humans are mere robots, programmed to serve without ability to show compassion. What is the pleasure in that? God gives us freewill in order to receive his own pleasure thru our devotion and love returned to him. When you take God and freewill out of the equation, you then begin to set yourself up as a mini-god;making decisions that only give yourself the pleasure,power and the glory. That mindset is the root of “extreme” liberalism and was invented by Satan himself. A prime example is the mindsets of persons authorizing, accepting, and using vending machine abortion drugs to legitmize recreational sex. It is still sin, no matter how politically correct you make it seem.

  6. An expert says that as ice sheets on polar lands turn into water, then empty into that ocean, the Earth’s surface is torqued in ways that, in some places, will eventually trigger volcanoes and earthquakes.

    The icy fingers shown in the video are tiny indicators that activity at the poles actually have quite a reach.

    In the long run they reach very far and wide.

  12. Artiewhitefox,

    So, you believe that Adam and Eve had tails? Does that mean that they descended from monkeys, and not apes?

    Let me see if I have this right:

    The deity, who is omniscient, knows all that is to come, deliberately created these humans, who the deity knew would disobey the commandment not to eat from the forbidden tree, which the deity also created. This ‘devil’ person, also created by the deity, in full knowledge of what the devil would do, participated.

    Then the deity, who had set up the entire situation, curses the humans with original sin.

    Now, if you’re a believer in the New Testament:

    The deity, who set all of this up, knowing what would happen, needs to be appeased for the sin committed by his creations.

    The deity then sends itself down, disguised as Jesus, to be tortured and murdered by the humans. Again, the deity, having set the whole thing up, knows that all this will happen.

    Result: the deity is appeased. The deity rewards the humans for murdering it by removing the stain of original sin. The humans have been rewarded for doing exactly what they were created to do.

    The deity has appeased itself by having itself killed. This makes perfect sense to me.

    My question for you:
    Why would you advocate that these descendants of monkeys not eat the forbidden fruit? This was the deity’s plan from the get-go.
    There wouldn’t be any Roman Catholic Church, and no Rick Santorum.

    The deity works in mysterious ways. The ways are so mysterious that some very bad people don’t believe that there is a deity.

  13. The death that you see exists because of humans who open their moth against God, denying him or blaming him for the bad. Had Adam, and Eve tucked their tail between their legs, as it were, and apologized for going to the forbidden tree, and even eating from it would have not have been contaminated with the devil, and hence Eden would still be a reality, without this finger of death existing at all.

  14. Jack Donaghy should use some of his GE Microwave technology to stop these brinicles, instead, he just narrates a video about this ruthless killing machine.

  15. The last time someone showed me the icy finger of death it had nothing to do with salt water.

  17. Seems like some I thought I saw in austin once upon a time…. Strange brew…….cool stuff….

  18. The ocean is the lifeblood of Earth, covering more than 70 percent of the planet’s surface, driving weather, regulating temperature, and ultimately supporting all living organisms. Throughout history, the ocean has been a vital source of sustenance, transport, commerce, growth, and inspiration. Yet 95% has yet to be explored by man. Truly earths most wondrous and amazing frontier.

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