It has been suggested that it may be due to the accumulation of frazil or anchor-ice.
Source: wiktionary
Frazil
//ˈfɹæ.zəl//
Synonyms for "frazil" (12 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Related word relations
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More general
1 entriesderived
1 entrieshas context
1 entriesis a
1 entriesrelated to
3 entriesTranslations
4 translations across 3 languages.
French
1 entries- frazil noun (collection of stray ice crystals)
Polish
1 entries- śryż noun (collection of stray ice crystals)
Russian
2 entries- на́ледь noun (collection of stray ice crystals)
- шуга́ noun (collection of stray ice crystals)
Sample sentences
3 total sentences available.
The greater the surface of the swift open water, the greater the quantity of frazil made in a minute, hour, or day. Every open rapid is, in ‘zero weather’, a frazil-factory.
Source: wiktionary
Following currents that flow across the Bering and Chukchi shelves, microplastics from the Pacific that arrive in Arctic waters are gathered up by the tiny crystals that clump together to form ‘frazil’ (the gloss of soft ice that forms on the surface of the water) and then are bound into the sea ice.
Source: wiktionary
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.