Salt and gravity carve five very specific patterns into melting ice—like 'scallops' and 'channels.'
March 24, 2026
Original Paper
The effects of salinity and inclination on the morphology of melting ice
arXiv · 2603.21150
The Takeaway
Melting is usually seen as a simple loss of mass, but this study shows that the interaction between saltwater and the ice's tilt creates specific, repeating geometric textures. These patterns help determine how fast glaciers and icebergs vanish in the ocean, turning melting into a complex piece of fluid engineering.
From the abstract
The salinity of water and the slope of ice significantly influence the melt rate and surface morphology of ice, both highly relevant in the context of glacier and iceberg melting in oceanic environments. In this study, we conducted experiments on vertical and sloped ice blocks melting in quiescent saline water. Through the use of fringe projection profilometry, we measured the morphology of the ice's front face. In particular, we combine the spatio-temporal phase shifting and orthogonal sampling