At standard atmospheric pressure and at temperatures near 0 °C, the ice crystal commonly takes the form of sheets or planes of oxygen atoms joined in a series of open hexagonal rings. The axis parallel to the hexagonal rings is termed the c-axis and coincides with the optical axis of the crystal structure.

When viewed perpendicular to the c-axis, the planes appear slightly dimpled. The planes are stacked in a laminar structure that occasionally deforms by gliding, like a deck of cards. When this gliding deformation occurs, the bonds between the layers break, and the hydrogen atoms involved in those bonds must become attached to different oxygen atoms. In doing so, they migrate within the lattice, more rapidly at higher temperatures. Sometimes they do not reach the usual arrangement of two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds to each oxygen atom, so that some oxygen atoms have only one or as many as three hydrogen bonds. Such oxygen atoms become the sites of electrical charge. The speed of crystal deformation depends on these readjustments, which in turn are sensitive to temperature. Thus the mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of ice are interrelated.

Mechanical properties

Like any other crystalline solid, ice subject to stress undergoes elastic deformation, returning to its original shape when the stress ceases. However, if a shear stress or force is applied to a sample of ice for a long time, the sample will first deform elastically and will then continue to deform plastically, with a permanent alteration of shape. This plastic deformation, or creep, is of great importance to the study of glacier flow. It involves two processes: intracrystalline gliding, in which the layers within an ice crystal shear parallel to each other without destroying the continuity of the crystal lattice, and recrystallization, in which crystal boundaries change in size or shape depending on the orientation of the adjacent crystals and the stresses exerted on them. The motion of dislocations—that is, of defects or disorders in the crystal lattice—controls the speed of plastic deformation. Dislocations do not move under elastic deformation.

The strength of ice, which depends on many factors, is difficult to measure. If ice is stressed for a long time, it deforms by plastic flow and has no yield point (at which permanent deformation begins) or ultimate strength. For short-term experiments with conventional testing machines, typical strength values in bars are 38 for crushing, 14 for bending, 9 for tensile, and 7 for shear.

Thermal properties

The heat of fusion (heat absorbed on melting of a solid) of water is 334 kilojoules per kilogram. The specific heat of ice at the freezing point is 2.04 kilojoules per kilogram per degree Celsius. The thermal conductivity at this temperature is 2.24 watts per metre kelvin.

Another property of importance to the study of glaciers is the lowering of the melting point due to hydrostatic pressure: 0.0074 °C per bar. Thus for a glacier 300 metres (984 feet) thick, everywhere at the melting temperature, the ice at the base is 0.25 °C (0.45 °F) colder than at the surface.

Optical properties

Pure ice is transparent, but air bubbles render it somewhat opaque. The absorption coefficient, or rate at which incident radiation decreases with depth, is about 0.1 cm^-1 for snow and only 0.001 cm^-1 or less for clear ice. Ice is weakly birefringent, or doubly refracting, which means that light is transmitted at different speeds in different crystallographic directions. Thin sections of snow or ice therefore can be conveniently studied under polarized light in much the same way that rocks are studied. The ice crystal strongly absorbs light in the red wavelengths, and thus the scattered light seen emerging from glacier crevasses and unweathered ice faces appears as blue or green.

Electromagnetic properties

The albedo, or reflectivity (an albedo of 0 means that there is no reflectivity), to solar radiation ranges from 0.5 to 0.9 for snow, 0.3 to 0.65 for firn, and 0.15 to 0.35 for glacier ice. At the thermal infrared wavelengths, snow and ice are almost perfectly “black” (absorbent), and the albedo is less than 0.01. This means that snow and ice can either absorb or radiate long-wavelength radiation with high efficiency. At longer electromagnetic wavelengths (microwave and radio frequencies), dry snow and ice are relatively transparent, although the presence of even small amounts of liquid water greatly modifies this property. Radio echo sounding (radar) techniques are now used routinely to measure the thickness of dry polar glaciers, even where they are kilometres in thickness, but the slightest amount of liquid water distributed through the mass creates great difficulties with the technique.