Yukimarimo

Yukimarimo are balls of fine frost formed at low temperatures on the Antarctic plateau during weak wind conditions.

Yukimarimo were discovered in 1995 at Dome F by the 36th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE-36) at temperatures of –59 to –72 °C.

"Yuki" means snow in Japanese, and "marimo" is a ball-like growth of water algae which the yukimarimo resemble.

After a storm, the temperature drops rapidly and, due to the excess humidity, hoarfrost forms on the surface of the snow.

At these low temperatures, electrostatic attraction between the rapidly formed ice crystals is high, due to growth charging during formation.