Here’s the problem with lakes of liquid water


Lakes around here freeze over solid on the surface. Lakes in more temperate places just stay liquid. It’s the ones trying to be in-between that get weird.

Be sure to have the sound on. Lakes aren’t supposed to sound like that!

Comments

  1. Denverly says

    Reminds me of the subduction zone drawings from geology class. Pretty and creepy. I can imagine both the music from Chariots of Fire and Psycho for this one.

  2. rogerfirth says

    We had that one time in Madison on Lake Mendota. We spent hours at the end of Picnic Point drinking beer and watching the ice pile up on shore. Another time was when the lake froze, then a wind came up and broke up the ice into billions of little wind chimes. The bells came from everywhere. Winter can be so cool!

  3. numerobis says

    Neat!

    I grew up in this area which gets ice stacking of much larger blocks, driven by tides. Similar concept, but slower and larger scale.

  4. throwaway, butcher of tongues, mauler of metaphor says

    I have the sudden urge to drop a quarter on it and hope it pushes 5 more off.

  5. Cuttlefish says

    I don’t remember this sound, despite years on the shore of Lake Erie. I remember booming sounds like distant thunder as plates of ice broke apart, and warnings of “needle ice” (I have since heard it called “candle ice”) that sounds like the result of the action in this video, where apparently thick ice is really a collection of badly-stacked columns of crystals, and a misplaced step means they won’t find you until March.

  6. says

    numerobis #3
    That is pretty cool. Even though I grew up in Fredericton, and have traveled around the Maritimes, I’ve never been around Minas Basin in the winter months, and never thought about the interaction of the high tides and winter ice in the area.

  7. says

    Lakes aren’t supposed to sound like that!

    Are you kidding? It sounds beautiful to my ears.

    I love the sound of breaking glass
    Especially when I’m lonely
    I need the noises of destruction
    When there’s nothing new

    Oh nothing new, sound of breaking glass

    I love the sound of breaking glass
    Deep into the night
    I love the sound of its condition
    Flying all around

    Oh all around, sound of breaking glass
    Nothing new, sound of breaking glass

  8. Athywren - not the moon you're looking for says

    I’m feeling rather chilly all of a sudden….
    I wonder if that’s what it looks like when plates come together? Although, faster, and less restricted, obviously.

  9. numerobis says

    Travis@7: I forgot there was a commentator here who actually knew the area! Drive through Moncton sometime in the late winter to see it. I also don’t recall being in the Minas basin; I was more of a Chignecto type (Alma, Moncton, Sackville, Joggins…).

  10. fishy says

    I have questions I can’t answer, because I immediately began to think about other icy bodies in the solar system. What about someplace like Titan? Would there be something similar? What would it sound like in that atmosphere?

    For that matter, what does anything sound like on Mars where we actually have rovers? Could someone please put a microphone on one of these things.

  11. FossilFishy (NOBODY, and proud of it!) says

    That was so beautiful!

    I used to stand for hours on a foot bridge over the North Saskatchewan River and watch the ice break up and slid off towards Hudson’s Bay. It was mesmerising and had a hissing sound unlike anything else. Days like the one in the video where the wind is blowing and you stand there in awe of the chill beauty, warm in your clothes until you aren’t any more, were the best. It was peaceful, and humbling, and joyous in a way that I never feel in summer.

    Damn, but I do miss winter.

    Mind you, after seven years in Australia I’m so weak that the mildest of wind-chill would do me in…

  12. Johnny Vector says

    Wind-driven ice is a wonderful thing. It’s even more nifty when the lake is only a couple inches deep and peppered with erratic rocks, and is dry most of the time.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_stones

    For me, I think the best thing about that whole article is learning that “ice shove” is a technical term. Here I figured it was a band name.