Frost Crystal Lattice — Windowpane Study
52.84 £
Ice crystals growing on a cold windowpane photographed at macro scale — the dendritic branching architecture of frost crystal growth revealing the hexagonal symmetry of water’s molecular structure.
Description
Frost crystals forming on a cold glass surface grow by vapour deposition — water vapour in warm indoor air depositing directly as solid ice on the sub-zero glass, growing outward from nucleation points in the characteristic dendritic pattern governed by the hexagonal symmetry of the water molecule’s hydrogen bond lattice. This photograph, made with a macro lens on a custom-fitted cold stage at -8°C ambient glass temperature, captures the frost crystal pattern in full growth — the main dendrite arms growing at 60-degree angles from the nucleation point, each arm carrying secondary branches at the same 60-degree geometry. The image resolves individual crystal facets and the growth steps on the crystal surfaces at a magnification approaching the limit of optical microscopy.
