The other day I discovered these perfectly round floating ice circles. The one in the foreground was at least 3 meters (9ft) in diameter. There is a smaller one on the far side of the river. I have never seen this before. There was a 3rd one not in these photos that was smaller yet. They were all slowly rotating in one spot.
Mother nature can really throw us a curve ball from time to time.
Interesting find Scott! I think you were witness to a somewhat rare natural phenomenon. There are other images like it on the internet, if you search for floating ice circles.
Hi Scott,
That is very nice, Three circular ice beautifully floating.. You captured the scene beautifully also.
I like the title of your posting as well ...
-Kee
Very interesting. Just guessing here that there is a circular current at each of these locations. I imagine that a leaf could have been captured in each of these spots and as it froze, the circling water froze outward from there, forming the ice circles.
I just searched for this online and saw a plausible explanation. Someone had commented on an article about these ice circles and said he used to make them when he was younger by throwing stones onto the ice. As it caused the water beneath the ice to ripple it somehow would create these perfect circles. Kind of makes sense if you think about it. Nice shots though I had never seen it before until now.I like #1 and #2.
Great images, Scott.
I make it a point to live where the streams DON'T freeze in winter - so I've never seen this before. Fascinating.
My guess is that this section of the stream has circling eddies and- under the right conditions- the circling speed of the water and the rate of its freezing match perfectly for this to happen.
Even if that is true- it's no less enchanting.
Charlie
