I've never heard of an ice wave. Is that a normal thing?

We did have ice chunk waves here at the creek one year. The ice broke up, got jammed up and spilled up in chunks over each other onto the shore (I am thinking it was in 1998/1999 - my sister and I and my ex stopped to look and a local station stopped and covered the story). Was pretty amazing and I am sure my sis still has pics of it all somewhere (and the way she saves vhs tapes probably still has the interview).

This is something similar I found:
http://www.myfrozenfeet.com/?p=815

Never heard of this before.
Mind blowing.

Kind of feels like watching some of the footage of the the tsunami in Japan. Slowly moving in - almost seemingly harmless at first - then plowing through whatever is in its path.

PB

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2013/05/10/mb-ochre-river-beach-ice-wave-homes.html?cmp=rss

Be sure to take a look at the picture. Crazy.

I've heard of this before - it's happened locally where I am as well, but usually houses are far enough back it's not an issue.

Beautiful and frightening at the same time.

One witness said it took only 5 minutes - http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/Manitoba/ID/2384744520/ So glad no one was hurt.

were saying.

Something like that, I believe.

the little white legs seem to be walking it forward!

There were some cabins that were damaged quite severly by the ice. Mill Lacs has a shoreline without much slope. The cabins were built years ago quite close to the shoreline. The ice, althoug still quite thick, is rotten and porous. The ice is blown ashore and the mass of ice just keeps moving. Close up, the ice resembles icicles. The same phenomena happed on a big lake just west of the Twin Cities but the wind was not as strong and the ice stayed close to the shoreline.

Wow. Scary!!

Quite rare actually. (I live very near the lake)


The spring shoves are frequent though.
http://bcove.me/genq0tzy

Of course, so is the sturgeon season on the lake.

Every year I watch for the reports of the sturgeon harvest.

I'm happy that the people who spear them are so respectful of the population that they protect the spawning grounds as they do.

Especially the multitude of natural wonders. Now if we could get rid of that douchebag of a Governor....

A blizzard on May 2, and it's going to be 90 degrees plus Tuesday. The trees are not fully leafed out and ice is still on lakes.

but I thought of glaciers, too.

We get a lot of tidal ice chunks here, but people's houses aren't in their path.

as water squeezes up through the ice and freezes?

This is the third awesomely cool ice phenomenon I've seen posted on DU this spring: there was a thread on needle ice, and the brinicle video earlier this year. Thanks, DUers!

How Lake Ice Melts
http://climate.umn.edu/doc/ice_out/ice_out_description.htm

A wonderful description of how lake ice melts away appeared on the web blog "Air Mass", hosted by the Star Tribune's Bill McAuliffe. Ed Swain, of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency describes the process of freezing and thawing lakes.

1. In the late fall, the lake loses heat to the atmosphere, and then on a day or night when the wind is not blowing, ice forms. The ice gets thicker as long as the lake can continue to lose heat.

2. In most Januaries and Februaries, snow both reflects sunlight and insulates the lake. With a thick snow layer, the lake neither gains nor loses heat. The bottom sediment is actually heating the lake water slightly over the winter, from stored summer heat.

3. Around March, as the air warms and the sun gets more intense, the snow melts, allowing light to penetrate the ice. Because the ice acts like the glass in a greenhouse, the water beneath it begins to warm, and the ice begins to melt FROM THE BOTTOM.

4. When the ice thickness erodes to between 4 and 12 inches, it transforms into long vertical crystals called "candles." These conduct light even better, so the ice starts to look black, because it is not reflecting much sunlight.

5. Warming continues because the light energy is being transferred to the water below the ice. Meltwater fills in between the crystals, which begin breaking apart. The surface appears grayish as the ice reflects a bit more light than before.

6. The wind comes up, and breaks the surface apart. The candles will often be blown to one side of the lake, making a tinkling sound as they knock against one another, and piling up on the shore. In hours, a sparkling blue lake, once again!

I think there comes a point in these events where your fear is replaced by your fascination.

was covered in ice over a mile in thickness just 14,000 years ago, and will be covered with thousands of feet of ice again someday. The buildings and trees scrubbed away into kindling and debris, the hills and valleys and lakes and rivers remolded under the weight and abrasion of the glaciers.

In May, not so much.

In late January through February, but not usually past early March.

nt.

It almost looks like something you would see in a SyFy movie, but instead, it is real.