Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 1984
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1984em%26p...31..229h&link_type=abstract
Earth, Moon and Planets, Volume 31, Issue 3, pp.229-248
Physics
8
Scientific paper
The distinction between homogeneous black ice and bubbly ice is well-known. Light entering homogeneous ice at normal incidence propagates without scattering until it is absorbed by the ice in a distance of ~10 m or more. Air bubbles serve as scattering centres, and if there are enough of them multiple scatterings turn the light around by a random walk before absorption takes place. Much of the light then reemerges from the ice which shines white in the Sun. A sufficient density of submicron particles of high refractive index in surface waters could produce a similar effect in the sea. Because of the absorbing properties of water itself, the reemergent light would tend to be in the blue to orange region of the visual spectrum. Reflection of sunlight in this spectral region could lower the oceanic temperature sufficiently to cause an ice-age. The origin of a suitably large density of submicron particles of large refractive index is attributed either to bolide impact or to an enhanced density within the zodiacal dust, since normal weathering processes do not generate particles which are small enough for the reflective property to become established.
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