Frozen Branch Pattern

Provided by: Mark Drejza
Summary authors & editors: Mark Drejza

The photo above is a close-up of a barberry shrub covered with ice during a tremendous ice storm, which occurred near Bear, Delaware on Valentine's Day 2007. The icy glaze was close to an inch (2.5 cm) thick and brought down branches and power lines alike over a narrow swath of the Delmarva Peninsula. I thought this photo did well to represent nature's random geometric patterns (tree branches) along with visual uniformity -- the layer of ice seems to create a uniform border to the naked eye.