Types of snowflakes and their names around the world. Why are snowflakes so different in shape? What's falling from the sky

Graceful beauty snowflakes

In normal snowfall We don’t think that an ordinary snowflake, when studied through a microscope, can present a beautiful sight and amaze us with the correctness and complexity of its forms. snowfall consists of such beauty.

By the way, the snow itself is not only white. In arctic and mountainous regions, pink or even red snow is common. The fact is that algae living between its crystals color entire areas of snow. But there are known cases when snow fell from the sky already colored - blue, green, gray and black.

Yes, for Christmas 1969 in Sweden fell black Snow. Most likely, this happened due to the fact that the snow, when falling, absorbed soot and industrial pollution from the atmosphere. In any case, laboratory testing of air samples revealed the presence of the insecticide DDT in the black snow

The mathematician was especially struck by the “tiny white dot” he found in the middle of the snowflake, as if it were the trace of the leg of a compass that was used to outline its circumference.

The great astronomer Johannes Kepler in his treatise “New Year's Gift. On Hexagonal Snowflakes” explained the shape of crystals by the will of God. Japanese scientist Nakaya Ukichiro called snow “a letter from heaven, written in secret hieroglyphs.”

He was the first to create a classification of snowflakes. The only one in the world named after Nakai snowflake museum , located on the island of Hokkaido.

Complex star-shaped snowflakes have a unique geometric shape that can be distinguished by the eye. And there are more variants of such forms, according to physicist John Nelson from Ritsumeikan University (Japanese) in Kyoto, than there are atoms in the observable Universe.

During snowfall In 1987, a world record snowflake with a diameter of 38 cm was found in Fort Coy (Montana, USA).

Any of us knows very well that one snowflake is practically weightless: it is enough to place your palm under the falling snowball.

An ordinary snowflake weighs about a milligram(very rarely 2-3 milligrams), although there are exceptions - the largest snowflakes fell on April 30, 1944 in Moscow. Caught in the palm, they covered almost the entire palm and resembled ostrich feathers.

More than half the world's population has never haven't seen snow except in photographs.

A layer of one centimeter of snow compacted over the winter provides 25-35 cubic meters of water per 1 hectare

Snowflakes consist of 95% from thin air, which causes low density and a relatively slow fall speed (0.9 km/h).

You can eat snow. True, the energy consumption of eating snow is many times greater than its calorie content.

A snowflake is one of the most fantastic examples of self-organization of matter from simple to complex.

In the Far North, the snow can be so hard that when an ax hits it, it rings as if struck by iron.

The shapes of snowflakes are incredibly diverse - there are more than five thousand of them. Even a special international classification has been developed in which snowflakes are combined into ten classes. These are stars, plates, columns, needles, hail, tree-like crystals resembling fern stems. The sizes of the winter miracle range from 0.1 to 7 millimeters.

Creaking snow– it’s just noise from crushed crystals. Of course, the human ear cannot perceive the sound of one “broken” snowflake. But the myriads of crushed crystals create a very clear creaking sound. Snow creaks only in cold weather, and the pitch of the creaking changes depending on the air temperature - the stronger the frost, the higher the pitch of the creaking. Scientists made acoustic measurements and found that in the spectrum of snow creaking there are two gentle and not sharply expressed maxima - in the range of 250-400 Hz and 1000-1600 Hz.

Snowflakes viewed through a microscope are God's wonderful handiwork. Each crystallized raindrop - which is snow - has a certain systematic pattern with countless varieties - several of them are represented in the figure.

When it snows, we don't think about it that an ordinary snowflake under a microscope is a beautiful sight and amazes with its regularity and complexity of shape. Snowflakes look like roses, lilies and wheels with six teeth. He was especially struck by the “tiny white dot” he found in the middle of the snowflake, as if it were the trace of the leg of a compass that was used to outline its circumference.”

On the night of December 31, Central Russia was miraculously powdered. Light fluffy snow gave a New Year's mood and covered the ground with a soft white carpet that will soften the effects of severe frosts.

Snowflakes, unique and inimitable, have always interested scientists, and some of them devoted their entire lives to the study of ice crystals.

One of the first scientists to think about the structure of snow was a German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler(1571–1630). In 1611, he published a short treatise, A New Year's Gift, or On Hexagonal Snowflakes, which can be called the first scientific work dedicated to snowflakes.

Since whenever it starts to snow, the first snowflakes are shaped like a hexagonal star, there must be a reason for it. For if this is an accident, then why are there no pentagonal or heptagonal snowflakes, why do hexagonal ones always fall, unless they lose their shape due to collisions, do not stick together in large numbers, but fall rarely and separately?

- Johannes Kepler, New Year's Gift, or About Hexagonal Snowflakes, 1611 (translation by Yu. A. Danilov)

Rene Descartes(1596–1650), French philosopher and mathematician, became the first to describe in detail the shape of snowflakes. Interestingly, Descartes' notes even mention very rare forms of ice crystals, such as topped columns.

They were small sheets of ice, flat, very smooth and transparent, about the thickness of a sheet of thick paper... perfectly folded into hexagons, the sides of which were so straight and the angles so equal... it is impossible for man to create anything like that.

- René Descartes, 1635

The invention of the microscope allowed the English physicist Robert Hooke(1635–1703) published a work in 1665 called Micrographia, in which the scientist described everything that he could examine with the help of a new instrument. The publication included many drawings of snowflakes, which for the first time showed the complexity and intricacy of snow crystals.

Drawing from Micrographia by Robert Hooke

Quote

While studying snowflakes using a microscope, I discovered... the higher the magnification, the more asymmetrical they appear. But this asymmetry can be attributed to melting or damage during the fall, but not to a defect in Nature.

- Robert Hooke, Micrographia, 1665

One of the first famous snowflake photographers was Andrey Andreevich Sigson(1840–1907), Russian photographer from Rybinsk. In total, he was able to take photographs of about 200 different forms of ice crystals. To do this, the photographer used a special technology: snowflakes were caught on a net of silks, then magnified 15–24 times using a microscope. To prevent the fragile crystals from melting during photography, Sigson cooled his hands and breathed through a special tube.

Sigson's Snowflakes

The American pioneer of snowflake photography was Wilson Bentley(1865–1931). Over the course of his life, he took about 5,000 photographs of snowflakes. 2,500 of them were published in 1931 in the book Snow Crystals.

Snowflakes Bentley, 1902

Ukihiro Nakaya(1900–1962), Japanese physicist - the first scientist to systematize knowledge of ice crystals. Nakaya not only photographed snowflakes, but also learned how to grow them in the laboratory. The result of the scientist’s research was the book “Snow Crystals: Natural and Artificial,” published in 1954.

Snow crystals are letters sent to us from heaven.

- Ukihiro Nakaya, documentary Snow Crystals, 1939

So how do snowflakes form?

Snowflakes originate in clouds, where ice crystals form on tiny dust particles at subzero temperatures. Then new ones grow on these crystals, and so on. The structure of the water molecule determines the hexagonal shape of the crystal; angles of only 60° and 120° are possible between its rays.

Since at each moment of time the conditions in which a snowflake grows are at least minimally different, each crystal has a unique shape. Moreover, all the rays of one snowflake are very similar, since they crystallize simultaneously under very similar conditions.

How many types of snowflakes are there?

Despite the uniqueness of the crystals, they can still be classified. However, according to American scientist Kenneth Libbrecht from the California Institute of Technology, this is not an easy task, since to some extent it is a matter of taste for each researcher. Libbrecht himself identifies 35 types of snowflakes; Ukihiro Nakaya - 41 and the most complex classification was proposed by meteorologists Magono and Lee in 1966 - 80 different types of snow crystals.

Classification by Ukihiro Nakaiya. © U. Nakaya | Snow Crystals: Natural and Artificial (Harvard University Press, 1954)

However, there is a simpler classification, developed in 1951 by the Snow and Ice Commission of the International Association of Scientific Hydrology - only 7 forms of snow crystals and 3 types of frozen precipitation.

Classes of snowflakes according to the International Snow Classification. © A.K. Dyunin, In the kingdom of snow, Nauka Publishing House, Novosibirsk, 1983

1. Records

The simplest of snowflakes are flat hexagonal prisms.

© Kichigin | Shutterstock.com

2. Stars

Like plates, stars are usually flat and thin, with six arms.

3. Columns

Hollow inside, can be pencil-shaped.

4. Needles

Long and thin crystals, sometimes consisting of several branches.

© Kenneth G. Libbrecht, Caltech | SnowCrystals.com

5. Spatial dendrites

Volumetric snowflakes are formed when several crystals grow together.

© Kenneth G. Libbrecht, Caltech | SnowCrystals.com

6. Topped Columns

They are formed if the columns find themselves in different conditions, and the crystals change the direction of growth.

© Yanping Wang | Shutterstock.com

7. Irregular crystals

The most common type. Formed when a snowflake is damaged.

© Kenneth G. Libbrecht, Caltech | SnowCrystals.com

Snowflakes, unique and inimitable, have always interested scientists, and some of them devoted their entire lives to the study of ice crystals.

One of the first scientists to think about the structure of snow was a German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler(1571-1630). In 1611, he published a short treatise, A New Year's Gift, or On Hexagonal Snowflakes, which can be called the first scientific work dedicated to snowflakes.

— Johannes Kepler, New Year's Gift, or About Hexagonal Snowflakes, 1611 (translation by Yu. A. Danilov)

Rene Descartes(1596-1650), French philosopher and mathematician, became the first to describe in detail the shape of snowflakes. Interestingly, Descartes' notes even mention very rare forms of ice crystals, such as topped columns.

— Rene Descartes, 1635

The invention of the microscope allowed the English physicist Robert Hooke(1635-1703) published a work in 1665 called Micrographia, in which the scientist described everything that he could examine with the help of a new instrument. The publication included many drawings of snowflakes, which for the first time showed the complexity and intricacy of snow crystals.

Drawing from Micrographia by Robert Hooke

Quote

— Robert Hooke, Micrographia, 1665

One of the first famous snowflake photographers was Andrey Andreevich Sigson(1840-1907), Russian photographer from Rybinsk. In total, he was able to take photographs of about 200 different forms of ice crystals. To do this, the photographer used a special technology: snowflakes were caught on a net of silks, then magnified 15-24 times using a microscope. To prevent the fragile crystals from melting during photography, Sigson cooled his hands and breathed through a special tube.

Sigson's Snowflakes

The American pioneer of snowflake photography was Wilson Bentley(1865-1931). Over the course of his life, he took about 5,000 photographs of snowflakes. 2,500 of them were published in 1931 in the book Snow Crystals.

Snowflakes Bentley, 1902

Ukihiro Nakaya(1900-1962), Japanese physicist - the first scientist to systematize knowledge about ice crystals. Nakaya not only photographed snowflakes, but also learned how to grow them in the laboratory. The result of the scientist’s research was the book “Snow Crystals: Natural and Artificial,” published in 1954.

Snow crystals are letters sent to us from heaven.

— Ukihiro Nakaya, documentary Snow Crystals, 1939

So how do snowflakes form?

How many types of snowflakes are there?

Classification by Ukihiro Nakaiya. U. Nakaya | Snow Crystals: Natural and Artificial (Harvard University Press, 1954)

Classes of snowflakes according to the International Snow Classification. A.K. Dunin, In the kingdom of snow, Publishing house "Science", Novosibirsk, 1983

1. Records

The simplest of snowflakes are flat hexagonal prisms.

Snowflakes, unique and inimitable, have always interested scientists, and some of them devoted their entire lives to the study of ice crystals.

— Johannes Kepler, New Year's Gift, or About Hexagonal Snowflakes, 1611 (translation by Yu. A. Danilov)

— Rene Descartes, 1635

Drawing from Micrographia by Robert Hooke

Quote

— Robert Hooke, Micrographia, 1665

Sigson's Snowflakes

Snowflakes Bentley, 1902

Snow crystals are letters sent to us from heaven.

— Ukihiro Nakaya, documentary Snow Crystals, 1939

So how do snowflakes form?

How many types of snowflakes are there?

Classification by Ukihiro Nakaiya. U. Nakaya | Snow Crystals: Natural and Artificial (Harvard University Press, 1954)

Classes of snowflakes according to the International Snow Classification. A.K. Dunin, In the kingdom of snow, Publishing house "Science", Novosibirsk, 1983

1. Records

The simplest of snowflakes are flat hexagonal prisms.

To the question How many types of snowflakes are there? given by the author compound the best answer is Hello!
The process of snowflake formation is the process of sublimation of crystals from the gas phase, bypassing the liquid state. In this case, the growth of successive “portions” of water molecules proceeds quite chaotically, starting from the moment of formation of the initial crystal. The fact is that the sublimation process requires “sublimation nuclei” - microaerosols contained in the air, since crystals cannot form on molecules of other gases, but only on a “solid surface”. Microsuspensions maintained in the air by turbulent vortices (dust, smoke, microbes, bacteria, spores, rock crystals...) are the basic “surface” on which the growth of initial water crystals begins. See more about microaerosols in the atmosphere in my answers to questions:
Since each microaerosol particle has a chaotic surface shape, the growth of crystals on its surface occurs from the very beginning in a disordered manner and the structure of the growing crystals will initially repeat the shape of this surface and therefore, in principle, there cannot be identical snowflakes, they can only be “grouped” by their types (see figure) and these types are extremely numerous and therefore hexagonal (according to the hexagonal structure of the “ideal” water crystal) and polycrystalline structures of great complexity are growing. Among the snowflakes there are plates, pyramids, columns, needles, arrows, simple and complex stars. But at the same time, they all have six faces and one axis of symmetry (see photo) and astronomer Johannes Kepler was the first to note this. Modern data confirms this; it is shown that the shape of a snow crystal follows the molecular structure of ice. Its crystal lattice consists of hexagons. .
Due to the fact that the level of saturation with water vapor in different parts of the cloud varies, and snowflakes due to wind and turbulence fall into different parts of the cloud, the process of layer-by-layer growth of crystals in the “upper” layers proceeds in jerks, unevenly, alternately slowing down or accelerating, due to with which the shape of their crystal “along” the beam differs among different snowflakes.
Starting from a certain level of growth of the “core” of the snowflake, the irregularities of the “initial” microsuspension become smoothed out and at some point it approaches the micro “ball”, on which 6 “protrusions” appear in accordance with the structure of an ideal water crystal, which gives “ the beginning of the growth of the rays, and when the rays have formed, then they grow without contact with each other independently, synchronously either accelerating or slowing down in accordance with the changing parameters of the environment into which they fall. See also about snowflakes here:
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Of course, if the microaerosols on which sublimation occurs were of exactly the same shape (which does not happen in nature), then obviously the snowflakes growing on their base would be a perfect copy of each other, like “stamped” ones.
But since microaerosols are all unique, we see this unique and beautiful creativity of nature in creating this miracle - unique snowflakes.
Therefore, know that when snow falls outside your window, that the millions of flying snowflakes that you see are each uniquely beautiful!
All the best.

Answer from Throw[guru]
Each snowflake is individual, like fingerprints.

Answer from Vailence[guru]
hmmmmm....as far as I know A lot!!! !Where can you find someone who will count snowflakes??? ?Each snowflake is different!

Answer from Neurosis[guru]
There are, however, seven basic types of snowflake shapes

Answer from Black Raven[guru]
There is not a single pair of absolutely identical snowflakes (which subsequently significantly supplemented the theory of the crystal).... like this....