"Yuki" means snow in Japanese, and "marimo" is a ball-like growth of water algae which the yukimarimo resemble.Found serendipitously while researching the post below this one.
During a storm on the Antarctic plateau the humidity is higher than normal. After a storm, the temperature rapidly drops and and due to the excess humidity, hoarfrost forms on the surface of the snow. At these low temperatures, electrostatic attraction between the rapidly formed ice crystals is high due to growth charging during formation. When a light wind blows after the formation of this hoarfrost, the hoarfrost breaks apart and the frost crystals clump together and stick due to the high electrostatic attraction and subsequent fusing of the ice crystals, and tumble across the snow in a manner similar to tumbleweed. The sizes of the yukimarimo range from a few millimeters to several centimeters in diameter.
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