If Arctic sea water is generally -1.8C, while the freezing point of water is 0C, why is the Arctic not fully frozen?

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If Arctic sea water is generally -1.8C, while the freezing point of water is 0C, why is the Arctic not fully frozen?

In: Earth Science

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Salt water doesn’t freeze at 0 degrees like fresh water. The salt drops the freezing point. It depends on how much salt is in the water but the freezing point for ocean water is about -2 degrees Celsius.

Anonymous 0 Comments

And ocean currents- which add energy to a system helping prevent ice crystals from forming…

Anonymous 0 Comments

“Melting point of ice” is actually a more accurate way of stating 0 Celsius, as plenty of reasons why liquid water can exist at that temp or colder. Ever see one of those movies of flash freezing water bottles…like this: https://youtu.be/1EhKbHSy34w

That’s not because it coincidentally got to or below 0 Celsius right when the guy put it on camera and banged it, it was already colder than 0

Anonymous 0 Comments

Have you ever made homemade ice cream?

You take the ice, 0°C. But then you add salt to the ice, and the temperature dropped to below 0°C.

This is the same reason the Arctic sea water is colder, because it is salty. Adding salt to the water changes the freezing point.

0°C is only the freezing point of PURE WATER, not salt water. The actual freezing temperature depends on the concentration of salt that is dissolved.