What is "anchor ice"

Anchor \An"chor\ ([a^][ng]"k[~e]r), n. [OE. anker, AS. ancor, oncer, L. ancora, sometimes spelt anchora, fr. Gr. 'a`gkyra, akin to E. angle: cf. F. ancre. See Angle, n.]

1. A iron instrument which is attached to a ship by a cable (rope or chain), and which, being cast overboard, lays hold of the earth by a fluke or hook and thus retains the ship in a particular station.

   Note: The common anchor consists of a straight bar called a shank, having at one end a transverse bar called a stock, above which is a ring for the cable, and at the other end the crown, from which branch out two or more arms with flukes, forming with the shank a suitable angle to enter the ground.

   Note: Formerly the largest and strongest anchor was the sheet anchor (hence, Fig., best hope or last refuge), called also waist anchor. Now the bower and the sheet anchor are usually alike. Then came the best bower and the small bower (so called from being carried on the bows). The stream anchor is one fourth the weight of the bower anchor. Kedges or kedge anchors are light anchors used in warping.

2. Any instrument or contrivance serving a purpose like that of a ship's anchor, as an arrangement of timber to hold a dam fast; a contrivance to hold the end of a bridge cable, or other similar part; a contrivance used by founders to hold the core of a mold in place.

3. Fig.: That which gives stability or security; that on which we place dependence for safety.

   Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul.
   --Heb. vi. 19.

4. (Her.) An emblem of hope.

5. (Arch.)

   1. A metal tie holding adjoining parts of a building together.

   2. Carved work, somewhat resembling an anchor or arrowhead; -- a part of the ornaments of certain moldings. It is seen in the echinus, or egg-and-anchor (called also egg-and-dart, egg-and-tongue) ornament.

6. (Zo["o]l.) One of the anchor-shaped spicules of certain sponges; also, one of the calcareous spinules of certain Holothurians, as in species of Synapta.

   6. (Television) an achorman, anchorwoman, or anchorperson.

   Anchor ice. See under Ice.

   Anchor light See the vocabulary.

   Anchor ring. (Math.) Same as Annulus, 2 (b).

   Anchor shot See the vocabulary.

   Anchor space See the vocabulary.

   Anchor stock (Naut.), the crossbar at the top of the shank at right angles to the arms.

   Anchor watch See the vocabulary.

   The anchor comes home, when it drags over the bottom as the ship drifts.

   Foul anchor, the anchor when it hooks, or is entangled with, another anchor, or with a cable or wreck, or when the slack cable entangled.

   The anchor is acockbill, when it is suspended perpendicularly from the cathead, ready to be let go.

   The anchor is apeak, when the cable is drawn in so tight as to bring to ship directly over it.

   The anchor is atrip, or aweigh, when it is lifted out of the ground.

   The anchor is awash, when it is hove up to the surface of the water.

   At anchor, anchored.

   To back an anchor, to increase the holding power by laying down a small anchor ahead of that by which the ship rides, with the cable fastened to the crown of the latter to prevent its coming home.

   To cast anchor, to drop or let go an anchor to keep a ship at rest.

   To cat the anchor, to hoist the anchor to the cathead and pass the ring-stopper.

   To fish the anchor, to hoist the flukes to their resting place (called the bill-boards), and pass the shank painter.

   To weigh anchor, to heave or raise the anchor so as to sail away.

Ice \Ice\ ([imac]s), n. [OE. is, iis, AS. [=i]s; aksin to D. ijs, G. eis, OHG. [=i]s, Icel. [=i]ss, Sw. is, Dan. iis, and perh. to E. iron.]

1. Water or other fluid frozen or reduced to the solid state by cold; frozen water. It is a white or transparent colorless substance, crystalline, brittle, and viscoidal. Its specific gravity (0.92, that of water at 4[deg] C. being 1.0) being less than that of water, ice floats.

   Note: Water freezes at 32[deg] F. or 0[deg] Cent., and ice melts at the same temperature. Ice owes its cooling properties to the large amount of heat required to melt it.

2. Concreted sugar.
   --Johnson.

3. Water, cream, custard, etc., sweetened, flavored, and artificially frozen.

4. Any substance having the appearance of ice; as, camphor ice. Anchor ice, ice which sometimes forms about stones and other objects at the bottom of running or other water, and is thus attached or anchored to the ground. Bay ice, ice formed in bays, fiords, etc., often in extensive fields which drift out to sea. Ground ice, anchor ice. Ice age (Geol.), the glacial epoch or period. See under Glacial. Ice anchor (Naut.), a grapnel for mooring a vessel to a field of ice. --Kane. Ice blink [Dan. iisblink], a streak of whiteness of the horizon, caused by the reflection of light from ice not yet in sight. Ice boat.

   1. A boat fitted with skates or runners, and propelled on ice by sails; an ice yacht.

   2. A strong steamboat for breaking a channel through ice.

      Ice box or Ice chest, a box for holding ice; a box in which things are kept cool by means of ice; a refrigerator.

      Ice brook, a brook or stream as cold as ice. [Poetic]
      --Shak.

      Ice cream [for iced cream], cream, milk, or custard, sweetened, flavored, and frozen.

      Ice field, an extensive sheet of ice.

      Ice float, Ice floe, a sheet of floating ice similar to an ice field, but smaller.

      Ice foot, shore ice in Arctic regions; an ice belt.
      --Kane.

      Ice house, a close-covered pit or building for storing ice.

      Ice machine (Physics), a machine for making ice artificially, as by the production of a low temperature through the sudden expansion of a gas or vapor, or the rapid evaporation of a volatile liquid.

      Ice master. See Ice pilot (below).

      Ice pack, an irregular mass of broken and drifting ice.

      Ice paper, a transparent film of gelatin for copying or reproducing; papier glac['e].

      Ice petrel (Zo["o]l.), a shearwater ( Puffinus gelidus) of the Antarctic seas, abundant among floating ice.

      Ice pick, a sharp instrument for breaking ice into small pieces.

      Ice pilot, a pilot who has charge of a vessel where the course is obstructed by ice, as in polar seas; -- called also ice master.

      Ice pitcher, a pitcher adapted for ice water.

      Ice plow, a large tool for grooving and cutting ice.

n. submerged ice anchored to the bottom of a river etc., irrespective of how it formed.

Anchor ice is defined by the World Meteorological Organization as "submerged ice attached or anchored to the bottom, irrespective of the nature of its formation." It may also be called bottom-fast ice.Anchor ice is most commonly observed in fast-flowing rivers during periods of extreme cold, at the mouths of rivers flowing into very cold seawater, in the shallow sub or intertidal during or after storms when the air temperature is below the freezing point of the water, and the subtidal in the Antarctic along ice shelves or near floating glacier tongues, and in shallow lakes.