The development of strong preferred c-axis alignments in sea ice has been a subject of debate since its initial discovery in 1959. Although numerous theories have been proposed for its development, none has been able to account for all of its field characteristics.
A detailed field investigation was carried out at Pond Inlet, N.W.T., to describe further the occurrence and structure of this ice type. Data collected over the winter of 1983–84 suggest two possible mechanisms of development. The first involves the selective growth of crystals during the formation of the initial ice skim, while the second requires the solid-state rotation of slip planes during constrained plastic deformation.