Levon Azizyan, director of the Center for Hydrometeorology and Monitoring SNCO, published photos, writing:
"Ice hair: a rare phenomenon that seems like magic."
Employees of the Bashkir "Yangan-Tau" geopark have photographed a rare natural phenomenon. "Ice hair" or "hairy ice" is formed only under certain conditions and resembles real white hair clumps.
As experts explain, for this phenomenon to form, rotting wood infected with the Exidiopsis effusa fungus, along with low air temperature and high humidity, is necessary. Almost complete windlessness is also essential, since even a light wind easily breaks ice threads.
Fungi play a key role in the formation of "hairy ice" - the lignins and tannins they contain, which slow the reconstruction of ice's crystal structure. As a result, the freezing water does not merge into one solid shell but forms delicate fibers, as if the ice were "growing" its own hair.
