water is the only substance on earth that decreases in density as it becomes a solid...H2O does increase in density as it gets colder, but only up to around 4 C when it goes haywire and actually decreases in density as it reaches the freezing stage of zero degrees Celsius.

which is the reason why ice floats, and why lakes freeze from the top downwards. if water were like any other liquid on earth, it would freeze from the bottom upwards...not so nice for the fishies...which would find themselves gulping air at the top of the lake as the ice rose...

these photos were taken moments after the sun had set (see my previous tabblo: winter beach). the day had begun at a warm 37 F, but was dropping fast as the sun dipped below the horizon...temperatures were approaching 20 F at the time these were taken.

From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?

Job 38:29-30