Drops

These images show what happens when oil-covered water breaks into drops of centimeter dimension on a sunny day. Complicated mini-flows occur and there also seems to be a separation of tiny drops within the main one, which might be some kind of additive to help engine cleaning (just a guess). I fabricated these by depositing a tiny drop of oil on rainwater and then taking advantage of when the water dried and split into drops.  The images with a single drop are of an area about 5 cm wide.

Multiple Oil Drops. The breakup of drops was facilitated by the rough pavement.
Full Oil Drop On Rough Pavement: There is a myriad of blue drops with a white halo and the remnant of a serpentine type of flow with a red base on the left side.
Cleft Oil Drop On Rough Pavement: Black shows the water extent. The black bands resulted from capillary (surface tension) fringes in the water. Every blue dot has a halo.
Boot-Shaped Oil Drop On Rough Pavement.
Blue Arcs About An Oil Drop
Black Capillary Fringes Beneath An Oil Drop
Extended Gray Oil Drop: This image provides a nice gray background to the colors. The image is of an area about 3.5 cm wide.
Color-Banded Oil Drop Bonanza: My website cover image. The larger drop contained flow. The right side shows flow around pavement asperities. The area was about 9 cm wide. I shot this at f 22 and 1/320 seconds in partial sunlight at ISO 1600.
Color-Banded Oil Drop Rims #1
Color-Banded Oil Drop Rims #2
Color-Banded Oil Drop Rims #3
Next

Flows