A lead is any fracture or passageway through sea ice that is navigable by surface vessels. A more general description of a lead is an area of open water or new ice between ice floes, although the term is generally applied to linear features. Typically leads range from a few meters to over a kilometer in width and several to hundreds of kilometers in length. If the open area is very large it may be called a polynya. Leads develop as ice diverges or pulls apart. A lead between the shore and the pack ice is called a coastal lead or shore lead, and a lead between the fast ice and the pack ice is called a flaw lead. At below-freezing temperatures, new, nilas and young ice forms at the surface of leads. From the point of view of the submariner, a recently frozen lead is an ice skylight
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