Finger Rafting: Ice Sheets That Mesh When They Meet

“Finger Rafting” is the block zippered pattern that forms when thin ice sheets floating on water collide creating “fingers” that push over and under each other alternately. This photo was taken off the Antarctic coast, [photo by W.F.Weeks] A study reported in Physical Review Letters demonstrates how ice sheets sometimes interlace when they meet, rather than riding over or under each other, and discusses the implications for other phenomena from plate tectonics of the Earth’s surface to the design of self-assembling nanostructures.