9523513 Wettlaufer This project is a three-year experimental study of the dynamics of liquid water existing at the boundaries of ice crystal at temperatures below the freezing point of pure water. This process, called premelting, has significant consequences in the redistributing of brine in sea ice, the apparent migrating of contaminants through glacier ice, and the rate of frost heave and weathering in soils and rocks. Premelting is common to virtually all types of materials, but has been most extensively studied in ice. It may be caused by adsorption forces, wetting, size effects, or substrate disorder, and involves many aspects of surface physics and phase transition phenomena. The experimental and theoretical program will include studies of ice crystal growth and unfrozen water transport between crystals as functions of temperature and temperature differences, as well as such studies between ice crystals and various substrates. An important objective will be the development of useful models for ice growth and impurity transport under natural conditions in order to assess how grain interfaces may serve as chemical conduits. ***
