Why is ice floating important to life?
Since water ice floats, it helps life survive on Earth. In the winter, when surface temperatures are low enough for water to freeze, floating ice forms a layer of insulation on top of lakes and seas. This ice layer insulates the water below it, allowing it to stay liquid, which allows the life within it to survive.
What would happen to life on Earth if ice were denser than liquid water?
This allows many aquatic life forms to survive through the winter. If ice were more dense than water, it would freeze and sink over and over until the entire lake was frozen. This would eliminate many aquatic organisms and produce a system with far fewer life forms in lakes which freeze periodically.
How would life in a lake be affected if ice sank?
If ice sank, lakes would freeze from the bottom up and the fish and other aquatic creatures wouldn’t survive the winter! Since water is good at holding heat, the more water there is, the more heat it will hold. This is why large deep lakes take longer freeze and melt than small shallow lakes.
Why is it significant that ice expands and floats on water?
The fact that water expands when frozen is also really important to life on Earth. Because it expands, ice takes up more space than water (it is less dense). This causes the ice to float on water. If the ice were not there, many of these organisms would freeze.
Why is it important that water is denser than ice?
When water freezes, water molecules form a crystalline structure maintained by hydrogen bonding. Solid water, or ice, is less dense than liquid water. Ice is less dense than water because the orientation of hydrogen bonds causes molecules to push farther apart, which lowers the density.
What will happen if icebergs do not float?
They would freeze from the bottom up as ice formed on the top and sank to the bottom. If ice did not float, life underwater would be impossible! Ice floats when water freezes on the top. It stays on the top and ice slowly gets thicker, freezing our lakes and ponds from the top down.