Needle ice

Kammeis called in geomorphology small, bundled needles of ice which "grow" out of the ground.

On snow-free but moist slopes "grows" the frozen water in the soil during the freezing- in the form of ice needles perpendicular to the cooling surface from the ground up. These icicles can grow up to 30 cm long. They occur on vegetation-free or low-, fine-grained and not entirely by frozen soils in periglacial embossed areas.

At the same time soil material being raised; this is downhill redeposited after thawing of the ice a little, which is why the relief can be changed here, is thus denudation ( areal ablation ). One then speaks of Kammeissolifluktion ( movement of soil particles on a slope, which is triggered by Kammeisbildung ).

A similar phenomenon is the Haareis on dead wood.