
The phenomenon known as “sea smoke” happens when temperatures drop. Relatively warm water meets very cold air, and we can see condensation occur, making it appear as though there is steam rising from the body of water.
It is a strikingly beautiful thing, and I’ve been lucky enough to be able to take amazing photos for a few days from Uunisaari in Helsinki.
We are accustomed to water being a major driving force for life…not only as something we need to consume every day, but also as something needed to be consumed by all life on land. That includes plants, which require water for many things but perhaps most germane to the rest of us oxygen-breathing organisms, water is required in the first photosynthesis reaction.
When you are able to see water exist in all 3 states simultaneously it is not only stunning but humbling: the situation of stable life as we know it on this planet is a precarious miracle.
There is nowhere else in our solar system or as-yet-observed universe where the healing and life-giving properties of liquid water, the heating and cooling properties of water vapour, and the geological force that is ice water all exist and can be observed at the same time.
Altering this balance has grave implications.
Graham
thanks for reading complimentary blueberry juice…made possible by the liquid state of water and the gift of photosynthesis

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