Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bu.edu!att!cbnews!cbnews!military
From: chidsey@smoke.brl.mil (Irving Chidsey)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Strange Ices, was Re: Disposition of American Battleships
Summary: Dense Ice is possible given enough pressure.
Keywords: Ice, High Pressure, Atomic burst.
Message-ID: <1990Oct25.150539.1020@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 25 Oct 90 15:05:39 GMT
References: <1990Oct18.020858.5946@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct19.032216.11798@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct24.012029.19707@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 43
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: Irving Chidsey <chidsey@smoke.brl.mil>

In article <1990Oct24.012029.19707@cbnews.att.com> deichman@cod.nosc.mil (Shane D. Deichman) writes:
<
<From: deichman@cod.nosc.mil (Shane D. Deichman)
<
<In article <1990Oct19.032216.11798@cbnews.att.com> gabriele@riverdale.toronto.edu (Mark Gabriele ) writes:
<>
<>Test Able was above ground; test Baker was a shallow-water burst, and
<>test Charlie was to be a deep-water burst.  Test Charlie was never 
<>conducted.  It is interesting to note that they physicists present theorized
<>that the pressure wave from the deep-water blast would actually create a
<>large block of ice as one of its effects.
<> 
<No flame, but I find this hard to believe since water is one of the
<few substances which is actually densest as a liquid (at 4 degrees
<C., with one atmosphere pressure).  Perhaps the scientists in question
<forgot about the hydrogen bonding properties of water....
<
<-shane
<
	That is at 'normal' pressures.  Given enough pressure, the
bonds are crushed, there is a higher order phase change to a
denser form.  There are several ices that form a realy high pressure,
thousands and millions of atmospheres.  Most ( all? ) materials undergo
such phase changes to denser varieties as the pressure increases.  There
is also a temperature effect.  The resulting phase diagrams can be quite
complex.

	Some Dense solids return to normal forms when the pressure 
is removed, but others may be stable, once formed, if the temperature is
low enough.

								Irv


-- 
I do not have signature authority.  I am not authorized to sign anything.
I am not authorized to commit the BRL, the DOA, the DOD, or the US Government
to anything, not even by implication.
			Irving L. Chidsey  <chidsey@brl.mil>