Frozen horses

In physics what is known as a "phase shift" is like when water turns to ice. And at the beginning of the universe, there was a phase shift from pure energy to matter. A way of looking at matter is that it is frozen energy–energy that has spun in on itself like an ice crystal and become solid. And the Higgs mechanism is the thing that allows that to happen. I can talk about it but it's hard to write about unless you have an image

And the same things happen in an instant under certain states in nature. If you have water that is below the temperature of freezing it can still remain water if it's very pure and very still; it kind of forgets that it should be frozen. So 31 degrees, 30 degrees, 29 degrees, it's still water, but it's in an increasingly supercooled state. There is a great deal of tension because it is just waiting to freeze--the slightest thing will set it off.

So this lake is sitting here and there was the Nazi bombardment of the forest adjacent to Leningrad that started a forest fire. A herd of Soviet artillery horses panicked at the forest fire and burst out of the stables and ran through the forest trying to find some safe place. They ran through the flames to get to the lake and they dove into the water. The act of hitting the water instantly turned this supercooled lake to ice and it trapped them. Malaparte was a journalist with the Finnish army and they came out the next day and saw that the lake that had froze overnight. And they walked out onto the ice and found themselves in a sculpture garden of dead horses caught in this moment of being flash frozen. It's a very compelling image.

On the third day a huge fire flared in the Raikkola forest. Men, horses and trees clutched within the circle of fire sent out awful cries. . . . Mad with terror, the horses of the Soviet artillery—there were almost a thousand of them—hurled themselves into the furnace and broke through the besieging flames and machine guns. Many perished within the flames, but most of them succeeded in reaching the shores of the lake and threw themselves into the water. . .

The lake is not deep there, not more than six feet; but a hundred yards from the shore the bottom suddenly drops. Pressed within the narrow space (the lakeshore curves inward there forming a small bay) between the deeper water and the barrier of fire, the horses clustered, shuddering with cold and fear, their heads stretched out above the surface of the water. Those nearer to land were scorched by the flames and reared and struggled to hoist themselves onto the backs of the others, tried to push a way open by biting and kicking. And while still madly struggling, the ice gripped them.

The north wind swooped down during the night. (The north wind blows from the Murmansk Sea, like an angel of doom, crying aloud, and the land suddenly dies.) The cold became frightful. Suddenly, with the peculiar vibrating noise of breaking glass, the water froze. The heat balance was suddenly broken, and the sea, the lakes, the rivers froze. In such instances, even sea waves are gripped in mid-air and become rounded ice waves suspended in the void.

On the following day, when the first ranger patrols, their hair singed, their faces blackened by smoke, cautiously stepped over the warm ashes in the charred forest and reached the lakeshore, a horrible and amazing sight met their eyes. The lake looked like a vast sheet of white marble on which rested hundreds upon hundreds of horses’ heads. They appeared to have been chopped off cleanly with an ax. Only the heads stuck out of the crust of ice. And they were all facing the shore. The white flames of terror still burnt in their wide-open eyes. Close to the shore a tangle of wildly rearing horses rose from the prison of ice.