Why did steam come out from ice?

Answer 1

It's probably more appropriate to call it fog than steam. Water, called water vapor, is contained in the air, but the amount of water air can hold is determined by its temperature. The warmer the air the more water it can hold. When warmer air is cooled it may not be able to hold all its water any more. When this happens the water it can no longer hold comes out of the air. This is commonly seen in the form of water that condenses on the outside of cold drinks or on windows in winter or dew on leaves in the morning, etc. But it can also remain as visible water vapor in the air and is called fog. Clouds are really fog. What you're calling steam is fog caused by the ice cooling the air touching it below the point the air can hold all its water and the water comes out of the air becoming fog.

This is the same as the fog that your breath makes in winter. Exhaled breath carries a lot of water because the body has heated the air and the lungs have added water to the heated air. When you breathe out, this water laden air contacts the cold air, is immediately cooled and can't hold the added water, so it condenses out becoming fog.

Answer 2

When steam comes out of ice, it is due to the process of sublimation. Sublimation is when a substance transitions directly from a solid to a gas without passing through the liquid phase. In the case of ice, the heat energy causes the ice to skip melting and go straight to vaporizing.