Snow metamorphism as revealed by scanning electron microscopy

Current theories of snow metamorphism indicate that sublimating snow crystals have rounded shapes, while growing crystals have shapes that depend on growth rates. At slow growth rates, crystals are rounded. At moderate rates, they have flat faces with rounded edges. At fast growth rates, crystals have flat faces with sharp edges, and they have hollow faces at very fast growth rates. The main growth/sublimation mechanism is thought to be by the homogeneous nucleation of new layers at or near crystal edges. It was also suggested that the equilibrium shape of snow crystals would be temperature dependent: rounded above −10.5°C, and faceted below. To test these paradigms, we have performed SEM investigations of snow samples having undergone metamorphism under natural conditions, and of snow samples subjected to isothermal metamorphism at −4° and −15°C in the laboratory. In general, current theories predicting crystal shapes as a function of growth rates, and of whether crystals are growing or sublimating, are verified. However, the transition in equilibrium shapes from rounded to faceted at −10.5°C is not observed in our isothermal experiments that reveal a predominance of rounded shapes after more than a month of metamorphism at −4 and −15°C. Some small crystals with flat faces that also have sharp angles at −15°C, are observed in our isothermal experiments. These faces are newly formed, and contradict current theory. Several hypotheses are proposed to explain their occurrence. One is that they are due to sublimation at emerging dislocations. Microsc. Res. Tech. 62:33–48, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.