A few weeks ago, The shells I hadn't finished cleaning from florida were
banished to behind the tool shed. Washington weather is rather unpredictable
(don't like it?  Wait 5 minutes) and low and behold we got the worst ice storm
in history a day later. Well during our 3 days without power, I went behind
the shed to check them out and they had 4 FEET of ICE covering the bucket as
well as a few parts of the many trees that came down. I totally freaked out
when they finally thawed (not in the house.. it was colder inside than out).
The apertures and apexs on the ficus, strombus and busycon were all chipped or
had cracked completely. I also lost all the various scallops and cockles
because they cracked all the way through. It turned out that there were a lot
of air bubbles under the bivalves and thats why they cracked. I'm still not
sure why the larger shells cracked.... Another mystery of nature I guess. Go
Figure!!!!  However all the small shells (the bulk of the bucket) were fine.
I'm just VERY glad that the prize specimens I had found were cleaned the week
before.
  By The Way... what defines a warm spell in Alaska?
Smiling in 45F
Sarah Watson