With winter
decidedly here and in everybody’s faces, it’s hard not to find our minds
turning to things of a chilly nature such as frost, snow and . . . ice!
Of course ice has a reputation for being slippery, slithery and even a tad
scary. If it’s not approached with respect and a great deal of caution, it can
even be downright dangerous. (So walk and drive very carefully, out there,
please!)
But what few recognize is that ice is also one of Mother Nature’s finest art
mediums. She does some of her greatest work with the cold stuff. Here are some
examples.
Mendenhall Ice Caves: (Alaska)
When you wander through a cave created by the effects of a melting glacier, you
enter, it would seem, a whole new world. It is a cave quite literally made from
ice. Apparently they’re a bit tough to reach. You have to take a kayak ride out
there, then hike over glacier to find the opening, but once you do, what you
see will almost bring tears to your eyes. A tube of ice surrounds you. It
undulates in smooth waves and, in some photos, is impossibly, gorgeously blue.
They say in some areas trees that haven’t seen air in a millennia are starting
to appear as the receding ice reveals ancient, long-buried forests.
Minnehaha Falls: (Minnesota)
This is a charming enough waterfall in the warm weather, when the water rushes
noisily down 53 feet (16 meters) of cliff in Minnehaha Park. It’s an offshoot
of the great Mississippi River, which makes it that much more interesting and,
on top of that, there’s a cave behind it that you can walk through and listen
to the water tumble. But in the winter, it becomes a wonder of its own. It
freezes into a stunning and almost magical ice cave of glowing ice sheets. They
start out blue, but, as you wander further through the cave, they burgeon into
all colors of the rainbow!
Ice Circles: (Various places)
In different places around the
world, lately, a rather unusual ice phenomenon has been popping up. Or should I
say spinning slowly. These are big, perfect discs of ice that form on bodies of
water and then spin slowly around and around and around. They have been known
to be as big as 50 feet across. I’ve seen a few in the river near my place, but
not usually much bigger than a supper plate. These huge discs are said to be
not a giant sheet of ice, but rather a bunch of little chunks that got stuck together.
Frozen Ice Bubbles: (Alberta)
Up in Canada there is a very
unusual lake known as Lake Abraham. It’s been much featured on the web and has
actually earned a bit of a reputation. And well deserved. In the winter, when
the lake freezes over, it develops a very odd look. Under the clear, hardened
surface, there are, visible, hundreds of knobby pillars, looking, in some
places, like huge stacks of pancakes. These frozen bubbles are created by
methane gas escaping plants and animals as the lake freezes over. Methane is a
very highly flammable substance. That’s why they say that these bubbles, while
beautiful, should be avoided when they’re popping. They might just pop a bit
too enthusiastically.
Who would have guessed it. You
just never quite know what paint brush Mother Nature is going to pick up next.
Photo by: Juliancolton
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