  Most ice in nature forms thanks to impurities which boost the exceedingly low
nucleation rate of pure supercooled water. However, the microscopic details of
ice nucleation on these substances remain largely unknown. Here, we have
unraveled the molecular mechanism and the kinetics of ice formation on
kaolinite, a clay mineral playing a key role in climate science. We find that
the formation of ice at strong supercooling in the presence of this clay is
twenty orders of magnitude faster than homogeneous freezing. The critical
nucleus is substantially smaller than that found for homogeneous nucleation
and, in contrast to the predictions of classical nucleation theory (CNT), it
has a strong 2D character. Nonetheless, we show that CNT describes correctly
the formation of ice at this complex interface. Kaolinite also promotes the
exclusive nucleation of hexagonal ice, as opposed to homogeneous freezing where
a mixture of cubic and hexagonal polytypes is observed.
