Comments on: Mysterious Ice Circles

Mysterious Ice Circles

Tube — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:12:52 -0800

Mysterious ice circles are large rotating ice disks on ice covered rivers or other bodies of water. Their origin and nature is controversial. Perhaps they are related to UFO's or something more prosaic, like pancake ice.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:15:36 -0800

C'mon, seriously, man? Pancake ice is a myth.

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:21:13 -0800

They need to get that Andy Goldsworthy in for questioning. I see his skilled hand in this.

By: prodigalsun

prodigalsun — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:24:22 -0800

Myth? Perhaps you would like to tell that to the Proprietor of the Intergalactic House of Pancakes!

By: amyms

amyms — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:27:55 -0800

Cool links, thanks!

By: fshgrl

fshgrl — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:28:40 -0800

All those circles are immediately up or downstrem of a constriction (low head dam, abutments, diversion dam). To me the most likely explanation is that the water is moving at different rates so that you get an eddy forming next to a swift-moving tongue. The eddy starts to freeze first and the faster moving water on the edged spins the floating ice as it forms so that you get a circle of thicker ice. Just my guess but I imagine it would be easy enough to test it out.

By: cosmac

cosmac — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:36:24 -0800

"It's from a USO. An Unidentified Skating Object." Heh.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:37:49 -0800

I blame Oolong.

By: Ynoxas

Ynoxas — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:51:03 -0800

I blame Oolong. posted by Kattullus at 3:37 PM on October 14 The tea?

By: KingoftheWhales

KingoftheWhales — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:51:07 -0800

Really, can people start placing [.pdf] notices in front of links to pdf files?

By: aeschenkarnos

aeschenkarnos — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:57:02 -0800

fshgrl All those circles are immediately up or downstrem of a constriction (low head dam, abutments, diversion dam). To me the most likely explanation is that the water is moving at different rates so that you get an eddy forming next to a swift-moving tongue. The eddy starts to freeze first and the faster moving water on the edged spins the floating ice as it forms so that you get a circle of thicker ice. What about a destructive rather than creative process, ie start with an irregular-shaped plate of ice, let it get somewhere in the body of water such that it gets a spin on it, and where its edge is rubbed against a source of heat and/or abrasion? Could this naturally form a circle?

By: KingoftheWhales

KingoftheWhales — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:58:20 -0800

Wait, they claim that UFOs made these? People are so crazy.

By: PsychoKick

PsychoKick — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:13:15 -0800

Ynoxas: The tea? Kattallus refers to the late, great Oolong.

By: fshgrl

fshgrl — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:23:40 -0800

What about a destructive rather than creative process, ie start with an irregular-shaped plate of ice, let it get somewhere in the body of water such that it gets a spin on it, and where its edge is rubbed against a source of heat and/or abrasion? Could this naturally form a circle? Don't see why not. You'd have to have a perfect eddy for it, of course.

By: nax

nax — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:25:27 -0800

KingoftheWhales: it's the UFOs that are scary man. I'm buying stock in tin foil.

By: wfc123

wfc123 — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:40:52 -0800

Nice link. Thanks.

By: brevator

brevator — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:02:28 -0800

I'm pretty sure that these are made by the same folks who brought us Snow Donuts.

By: knave

knave — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:08:27 -0800

Also, the ancient Egyptians had Helicopters.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:22:33 -0800

Aliens are making ice circles! Man, aliens are bored.

By: googly

googly — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:26:57 -0800

The eddy starts to freeze first and the faster moving water on the edged spins the floating ice as it forms so that you get a circle of thicker ice. But...but...eddy's in the space-time continuum, so how could he be in the river, too?

By: wsg

wsg — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:53:13 -0800

I think these ice circles are from the same people who brought us crop circles. I don't think they have a natural origin.

By: rob511

rob511 — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 17:09:31 -0800

Mars Needs Ginnan Tonic!

By: pjern

pjern — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 17:29:55 -0800

Here's your proof: The ratio of the diameter of the ice circles to their diameter is ***in every case*** PRECISELY the same as the ratio of the Earth's diameter to its circumference. That's scientifical proof!!!11!!ONEZ11

By: pjern

pjern — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 17:31:15 -0800

mods, this is why we need an edit feature on own posts.

By: sfenders

sfenders — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 18:05:51 -0800

As more and more floes accumulated, the disc grew. Friction with the surrounding river ice rounded off the edges until it was nearly a perfect circle Cool, I've never heard of that. Ice can do weird things. I once saw towers of ice rising out of a river, four feet high. Sort of like these ice spikes, only large and gnarly, not at all regular in shape.

By: KokuRyu

KokuRyu — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 18:20:34 -0800

I'm wondering if it would be possible to indicate when you link to a pdf, especially when it is the first link in your post. As well, it's sometimes confusing and annoying when every word in a sentence links to something different. I realize there may be too schools of thought on this one, but, still... Not a big deal - nothing I would start a MetaTalk post on. Otherwise, nice post.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 18:45:00 -0800

Doesn't anyone look down at the url of the link before they click on it? You really should. It will prevent you from inadvertently opening up a (God forbid) .pdf file, or something equally dastardly. Cool post! No ... COLD post. ICE cold!

By: zardoz

zardoz — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:19:57 -0800

Cool links, and a new paranormal phenomenon for me to obsess over! Thanks, Metafilter!

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 20:28:32 -0800

What's alarming is that some people out there don't understand that a rotating plate will, with ablation, perfectly cicularize itself. Have they never seen a potter's wheel or a lathe?

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 20:47:23 -0800

mods, this is why we need an edit feature on own posts. Classic.

By: RedEmma

RedEmma — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 21:12:24 -0800

i spend a lot of time looking at ice in the winter. this is something i really really want to see. (and i hadn't seen the donuts link!)

By: Ynoxas

Ynoxas — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:07:52 -0800

Really, can people start placing [.pdf] notices in front of links to pdf files? posted by KingoftheWhales at 3:51 PM on October 14 First, why would it matter that it is a .pdf? Aren't PDFs well-rendered on all platforms? Second, if this sort of thing matters to you, why not mouse-over the link to see the URL? Takes 0.5 seconds, and would (apparently) save you some sort of heartache.

By: empath

empath — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:24:39 -0800

i'm annoyed when people blind link pdfs because pdf's stop your web browsing cold while you load up the shitty adobe reader, or in the case of firefox on mac, I get a pop up asking me if i want to load it in preview or not. Either way, it's annoying

By: hortense

hortense — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 23:14:58 -0800

Askme

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:51:11 -0800

Windows people annoyed by the sloth of Adobe Reader need to uninstall it and get Foxit Reader instead. Mac people annoyed by preview popups need to learn Ynoxas's top-secret web-ninja link-mouseover technique.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 23:40:43 -0800

I get a pop up asking me if i want to load it in preview or not. Check the box that says "always do this". In the future when you want to save a pdf, ctrl-click.