Comments (4)

1. To me, it just looks like there is a lot of ice in the water and the waves keep pushing it to the shore and it builds up until it looks like a wave itself.

   posted by Sheldon Siegel on 3-13-2007 at 4:51 pm

2. As the tempature begins to warm the ice becomes thinner near the coast. If sheet of ice in the bay breaks away or cracks of the larger ocean sheet it becomes a free floating mass. The wind then pushes the loose ice sheet inland. With sufficient wind the mass of the ice sheet combined with the low friction of ice floating on water and you get an ice flow with a large amount of inertia, thus it doesn’t simply stop at the coast. These ice floes can also happen on northern lakes in the spring.

   posted by James on 3-13-2007 at 5:18 pm

3. The spring ice break up all the ice on the body of water (lakes, rivers, and inlets) can clear in a matter of hours. In the case of a lake the entire sheet of ice will pile up one one end in a very short period time. Additional pressure on the underside of the ice due to increasing flow caused by spring melt around the body of water and weakening of the ice near the edges will cause the ice that is frozen to the banks to break free or the ice sheet to break away from the bank ice. The Lake will go from being completely covered with ice to having no ice. Often in the communities around the body of water, there will be contests betting on when the ice will break up.

   posted by Todd on 3-13-2007 at 6:39 pm

4. My grandmother lived near a river that would ice up during the winter. I went to the bank one day when everything was still and quiet, and I could hear the broken ice knocking together. It reminded me a little of wooden windchimes. One of the prettiest things I’ve ever heard.

   posted by Larissa on 3-14-2007 at 6:52 pm

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