The Flexoelectric Cryosphere

Ice makes electric charge when it is bent. This was measured in 2025, and the strength of the effect matches the ceramics used in sensors. This paper follows that one rule, a sharper bend makes more charge, through thunderstorms, frozen films in space, and the floating ice shelves of Antarctica. Three steps are new. First, a mechanism for how charge made by a bend can leave the particle: water's liquidhttps://rifor.org/~gholmes-like surface skin carries it across the contact, and stick-and-slip of the receding water strands it, as measured for sliding drops in 2025. Second, contact mechanics turns the lightning estimate from a guess into a range: a storm builds the charge for its first flash in about 8 to 28 minutes, with a central case of about 17 minutes, worked step by step. Third, a laboratory test with a built-in control: a film of dense ice bonded to a film of light ice should charge as the dense layer converts, while a symmetric sandwich should not. Every number is worked with multiplication and addition. What was measured and what is proposed are kept apart throughout.