The waves still curl, but they seem to have acquired a different texture. In Jonathan Nimerfroh’s Nantucket photographs, the nearshore water looks thick and slushy, with familiar surf shapes moving through a wintry mixture of ice and sea.
The collection circulated in 2015. It is a striking record of local coastal conditions, not evidence that the Atlantic had frozen solid.
How seawater begins to freeze
NOAA explains that seawater freezes below freshwater’s freezing point because of its salt content. The relevant temperature is that of the water, so a reported air temperature alone cannot fully explain a particular wave photograph.
As described by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, small ice crystals can gather into a slushy mixture during sea-ice formation. Moving water and turbulence influence how that material collects, rather than always allowing a smooth sheet to form.
Read the texture, not just the outline
The crest and the white surf still identify these as waves. The unusual effect lies in the surface: it looks denser and more granular than an ordinary smooth face of water. Comparing the frames helps separate the wave’s changing shape from the shared wintry texture.
That makes the collection a useful lesson in coastal photography. A familiar subject can become interesting again when conditions alter one detail—surface, colour or light—without changing the whole scene.
Admire the photographs from a warm place or an appropriate shore viewpoint. Slush and coastal ice do not turn the sea into stable ground.
For other forms of frozen-water texture, explore bubbles, cracks and ice plates. For a much larger meeting of flowing water and winter ice, see Niagara Falls in the 2015 cold.
A breaking wave with an unfamiliar texture
The unusual texture is easiest to follow across the wave face, where an ordinary photograph might show a relatively smooth curve. Here, light catches a grainier-looking surface while the crest retains its familiar outline. The shoreline gives that close detail a setting: this is surf arriving at Nantucket, not a free-floating block of ocean ice. Keeping both kinds of view in the series lets the reader move from the surprising surface to the coastal scene that Nimerfroh was photographing.
The original report gives an air temperature of about 19°F, or minus 7°C. It should be read as the photographer’s account of that day, not as a measurement of the seawater or a universal threshold for making slush waves. His background as a surfer and ocean photographer also gives the series a useful context. These are observations of a coast he follows closely. His linked portfolios offer more examples of his ocean photography.
Sources, photography and further reading
Original feature and image attributions:
- Bored Panda
- Bizarrely Low Temperatures Transformed Niagara Falls Into A Frozen Wonderland
- The 30 Most Amazing Photos Of Frozen Things In Honor Of The Coldest Morning Of The 21st Century
- What Happens To This New England Town Every Winter Is So Beautiful, It's Shocking
- 24 Beautiful Ice And Snow Formations That Look Like Art
- Jonathan Nimerfroh
- NOAA explains
- National Snow and Ice Data Center
- bubbles, cracks and ice plates
- Niagara Falls in the 2015 cold
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