5/6/2014 Snowflakes and Snow Crystals

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/ 1/3
... Your online guide to snowflakes, snow crystals, and other ice phenomena ...
Home
Natural Snowflakes
--Photo Gallery I
--Photo Gallery II
--Photo Gallery III
--Guide to Snowflakes
--Snowflake Books
--Historic Snowflakes
--Ice Crystal Halos
--Snowflake Store
Designer Snowflakes
--I: First Attempts
--II: Better Snowflakes
--III: Precision Snow
--Snowflake Movies
--Free-falling Snow
--Designer's Page
Frost Crystals
--Guide to Frost
--Frost Photos
Snowflake Physics
--Snowflake Primer
--Snow Crystal FAQs
--No Two Alike?
--Crystal Faceting
--Snowflake Branching
--Electric Growth
--Ice Properties
--Recent News
--Myths and Nonsense
Snow Activities
"How full of the creative genius is the
air in which these are generated!
I should hardly admire more if real
stars fell
and lodged on my coat."
--Henry David Thoreau, 1856 [1]
Welcome to SnowCrystals.com! This site is all about snow crystals
and snowflakes -- what they are, where they come from, and just how
these remarkably complex and beautiful structures are created, quite
literally, out of thin air.
Snowflake News
<<<NEW
BOOK! The
Secret Life
of a
Snowflake
The Secret
Life of a
Snowflake
describes the
art and
science of
snowflakes, aimed at readers from 6 to
12. Click on the book at left to see more.
See other books at Snowflake Books.
Or purchase snowflake cards, prints, and posters at the Snowflake
Store.>>>
FREE! Snowflake Wallpaper. Put an
awesome snowflake on your desktop --
guaranteed to make your computer run cooler!
Click on the size appropriate for your computer
screen: 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768,
1152x864, 1280x1024, 1400x1050,
1600x1200, 1680x1050.

Natural Snowflakes
5/6/2014 Snowflakes and Snow Crystals
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/ 2/3
--Snowflake Watching
--Photographing Snow
--Make Your Own
--Snowflake Fossils
--Ice Spikes
--Activities for Kids
Snowflake Touring
--Snowflake Hot Spots
--Northern Ontario
--Hokkaido, Japan (2) (3)
--Michigan U. P.
--Vermont
--California Mountains
Copyright Issues
Pictures, pictures,
pictures. Visit the three
Photo Galleries to see
some spectacular
photographs of snow
crystals.
Don't know a stellar
dendrite from a capped
column? The Guide to Snowflakes shows
different kinds of snow crystals that fall from the sky. Browse the other
links at the far left to find out more about natural snowflakes.

Designer Snowflakes
We grow our own "designer" snowflakes in
the lab year-round, right here in sunny Southern
California. It's part of our ongoing research into
the physics of crystal growth and pattern
formation. View three generations of
laboratory-grown snowflakes at our Designer
Snowflake Galleries, or watch some Movies of
growing snow crystals.
Snowflake Physics
Why do snowflakes look the way they do?
Check out the Snowflake Primer to learn
about what snow crystals are, how they form,
and why they grow into such diverse
shapes. Or visit our Frequently Asked
Questions page.
Snow and Ice Activities
Beyond skiing, snowboarding, and ice
skating.... Here are some unique projects you
can do with ice and snow. You might try
growing your own snowflake crystals, or
photographing snowflakes in the wild. Or
perhaps you'd like to try your hand at creating
some mysterious ice spikes right in your own
home freezer.
Still Something ...
Snowflake Stamps. The U.S. Postal Service created a set of
commemorative postage stamps in 2006 using photographs by yours
truly - click on the image at right for more details.
5/6/2014 Snowflakes and Snow Crystals
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/ 3/3

[1] H. D. Thoreau, The Journal of Henry David Thoreau (edited by Bradford Torrey and
Francis Allen) (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1906; Peregrine Smith, Salt Lake City, 1984)
Vol. 8, 87-88.
SnowCrystals.com was created by Kenneth G. Libbrecht, Caltech
Comments? Send an e-mail....

visitors since February 1, 1999