Lake stars and ice circles
A chance encounter with a natural phenomenon
Every once in a while you come across something so extraordinary it stops you in your tracks. That’s what happened last Sunday when I was headed into the nearby town of Campbellford to pick up some Sunday takeaway. Headed up Godolphin Road, I was looking around, noticing how the small amount of snow we had received in the previous few days had largely melted or evaporated away. That said, it was cold, very cold, although tempered a bit by the afternoon sun. Some of the coldest weather we’d had all year, which by any description had been downright abnormal.
None of the characteristic snow storms our area is known for had come our way this year. It had been a mostly green Christmas. We got a couple of inches in the middle of January but that was about it. There had been weather. Some big storms had passed south or north of us, both rain and snow. I suspect this lack of snow locally had something to do with my buying a snowblower this year, but I can’t be sure. I used it twice and on both occasions I could have just let it melt.
The lack of snow and the t-shirt weather earlier in the month was of course welcome even as it pointed to global warming and the prospect of a potential drought in our area this coming year. But even though it was now spring, it was cold again; as if we were headed into winter. A confusion of seasons.
As I drive, on my left is a small wetland, no more than an acre, at least the part you can see from the road. Lake Hermiston, despite its name, is hardly a lake at all. More of a pond really. Still, it is a delightful sight throughout the year and I never fail to look over to see what’s happening there. A single house sites above it, the lake, the part you can see, fully encompassed by their property.
I pull over to the side of the road to take some pictures from the road. What the heck? Round circles dot the surface of the pond which is mostly covered by a thin layer of ice. The circles are accompanied by stars. I need to get a better look. I walk over and knock on the door of the house. A young man opens the door. I introduce myself apologizing for calling on a Sunday and say, “I notice the ice formation on the pond.” “Yes” he replies, “and the deer antlers. That’s what I call them. They’re all over.”
I think about this for a second. Yes, they do look a bit like deer antlers. I continue, “I wonder if I might step on to your property, to get a better look and to take some photos?” The young man calls for his father. Emilio and I have a brief exchange as I remind him who I am, being a neighbour who lives within a mile of their house. “Yes,” he tells me thanking me for asking, “just be careful near the water’s edge.”
Having warned them of my presence, I ventured down for a closer look. Fascinating. They seem perfectly round and are all different sizes. The edges are defined by slightly raised lips of ice. They seem to have grown like crystalline structures, the edges sparkling in the contrasty sunlight. The ice doesn’t look strong enough to stand on and I have no intention to test this. I know it hasn’t been cold enough for that and I don’t want this to end badly.
Interestingly, the stars never interrupt the circles. They keep their distance. It’s as if they are constellations of stars orbiting around planets. On closer inspection I notice that the planets also seem to have stars within them.
They are fascinating to look at. To ponder why they form and how long they will last. I’ve since tried to learn more about them, but there isn’t much I’ve found. There does seem to be some consensus on what they are called. Lake stars and ice circles seem to be common terms, but ice circles seem to usually be larger and phenomenally, break away from the surrounding ice, turning slowly like wheels set on automatic. I didn’t see that here, but perhaps that was still developing. There did seem to be some open water right around the perimeter of at least some of them.
I think I might be right about the crystalline structure of them. That they grow. But why? Must have something to do with cycles of air and water temperatures, but does it have something to do with currents in the pond as some suggest? The big ones I’ve read about seem to form on rivers with at least moderate currents, but there are little or no currents in this pond.
Addendum: How they form
Okay, so it turns out, if I understand the information from the links below , lake stars appear when snow falls on ice enough to depress the ice creating a capillary action which allows water from below to rise up through weak points in the ice.
What I’m listening to…
Hi John,
Well spotted! Here is some information about the ice stars you sent me in Dec/22 when I saw this same phenomenon at our local Eco Park:
http://lakeice.squarespace.com/ice-stars/
I didn't see any of the circles or disks, perhaps because they require some current that in our pond is insufficient to allow a circle to form. Here is a link to photos of the stars:
https://www.facebook.com/bob.charlton.777
Incredible images John!