NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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  1. Question

    In winter, when water freezes, how does the freezing ice help the marine life/plants inside lakes, rivers, and oceans to surive?

    Water has the very unusual property that its solid form (ice) floats on the liquid. Thus water freezes from the top down. The ice crust that forms on a body of water insulates the water beneath from cooling and allows it to stay liquid for a long time, perhaps through the winter.

    David Morrison
    NAI Senior Scientist

    September 21, 2004