spontaneous nucleation

spontaneous nucleation

[spän′tā·nē·əs ‚nü·klē′ā·shən] (meteorology) The nucleation of a phase change of a substance without the benefit of any seeding nuclei within or otherwise in contact with that substance; examples of such systems are a pure vapor condensing to its pure liquid state, a pure liquid freezing to its pure solid state, and a pure solution crystallizing to yield pure solute crystals.