Classification of ice of natural water bodies

Classification of ice according to its structural characteristics such as the size and form of the crystal and its optical orientation has become widely used among researchers in recent time. On the basis of crystal morphological characteristics, all natural ice is divided by its crystal structure into prismatic, fibrous, and isometric (granular) types. Each of such types is divided by the character of development of its faces (surface complexity) into regular granular (hypidiomorphic) and irregular granular (allotriomorphic), and by crystal sizes into fine, meso and macro granular. A disadvantage of this classification is that it reflects only structural ice features, mainly, crystal morphology, without any genetic foundation. With such an approach some ice formed in different hydrometeorological conditions and having similar crystal structure can be referred to as one type. For instance, infiltrated ice and sludge ice. A pure genetic classification also does not meet practical problems because it divides all ice only by conditions of their formation: congelation* ice congelation-underwater ice*, infiltrated ice, etc. Such a division of ice does not take into account its structural features, the difference in which is especially great in congelation and congelation- underwater ice formations.