This awe-inspiring video of hikers walking across a frozen lake that’s clear as glass has generated over 15-million-views in less than a week. Slovakian hiker Tomas Nunuk from the capital Bratislava filmed the short video of him and his friends walking on the glass-like ice after hiking up Slovakia’s High Tatras mountain range. Velke Hincovo Pleso is located approximately 6,300-feet above sea level in Mengusovska dolina, under the Koprovsky stit mountain. The lake is 176-feet at its deepest point, making it the largest and deepest in Slovakia. Continue reading for the video and an explanation.
Reddit user GeoGeoGeoGeo says, “If the water is cooled too quickly it doesn’t have enough time to reject any impurities as it crystallizes – those impurities are then held within the crystal lattice and distort the crystal lattice. Thus, if there are impurities such as trapped gases, organic material and other minerals or dissolved salts (an inhomogeneous mixture) the ice will appear optically translucent, or even opaque. However, if the water cools and freezes over a longer duration of time, it has time to reject these impurities as it crystallizes. This eventually gives rise to a more homogenous mixture and less defects in the crystal lattice which creates clear, transparent water ice.”
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