Strange ice boulders appear in Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan, go viral on FB

I've tried searching with a lot of search terms, and I've also tried CTRL+F on the first couple of pages of Fragile Earth, but with no avail. If there was indeed a thread on this, please lock this. Thanks.

GOOD HARBOR, Mich. (WZZM) - She's lived near the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore for nearly seven years but a Northern Michigan woman says she's never seen anything like this.

Leda Olmstead came across dozens of ice boulders during her daily walk Thursday afternoon. The giant formations were scattered across a 100 foot section of the beach and were too heavy for her to pick up.

www.lansingstatejournal.com...

My first instinct was to blame this on global warming and rant about it, but it seems it can be explained without taking extreme climate into account. That's a shame, but the pic is really cool anyway.

www.mlive.com...

Nature showing off again

Seriously, very cool images and story OP and certainly the first time I have seen this particular article posted on ATS or anywhere else for that matter so S& F for sharing.



~ "sit's back with popcorn and beers and awaits someone claiming these were made by local giants for their annual snowball fight / festival"~

reply to post by MisterMiyagi


I claim these were made by local giants for their annual snowball fight / festival

Beer n Popcorn is not good for you

Edit to add : On a more serious note, it would be very interesting to find out how these boulders have been formed...

My guess could be wind?

Kindest respects

Rodinus

Simple really I'm south of there and it happens all the time . Big waves break up the isc and roll it back and forth. was on the beach here the other day but ice jams were not letting the waves come ashore

My guess: A large number of partially completed snowmen...... or preperations being made to build the Biggest. Fort. Ever

Originally posted by mikell
Simple really I'm south of there and it happens all the time . Big waves break up the isc and roll it back and forth. was on the beach here the other day but ice jams were not letting the waves come ashore

Yep, exactly.

Sleeping Bear Park Ranger Amie Lipscomb said no weird weather is required to create the ice boulders. The rounded ice forms the same way the rounded and smooth stones that wash up on the beach form. Chunks of ice break off from the large sheets that form over Lake Michigan. Waves tumble and pummel the ice, rounding and smoothing edges, Lipscomb said. The waves then wash the boulders up on shore.

Recent high winds have whipped up strong waves along Lake Michigan.

"Along the shoreline, lots of different ice formations form because of the waves crashing along the beach," Lipscomb said.

www.mlive.com...

They are snowballs. I've seen this twice in my whole life. Strong winds cause the snow to start rolling and we all know what happens when you start rolling a snowball..


Doh! I see someone beat me to it. Saw these a couple years ago here in Illinois. We had snow combined with fairly strong winds. Out here it is flat and the wind started rolling the snow which made some fairly large snowballs.

I totally wanted to blame this on global warming and rant about it, but it seems it can be explained without taking extreme climate into account. That's a shame,

What a strange statement, i guess you have an agenda..

Originally posted by PhoenixOD

I totally wanted to blame this on global warming and rant about it, but it seems it can be explained without taking extreme climate into account. That's a shame,

What a strange statement, i guess you have an agenda..

\
You beat me to it....

I read that and thought.... What a shame, we can't blame yet another thing on global warming!

reply to post by butcherguy


Uh, no, guys, I don't doubt global warming at all. I don't use air conditioners, am vegetarian, etc., and my username means 'earth is our home' in Chinese. I was just trying to be funny (and really, it was my original intention to blame it on global warming). Clearly, it didn't work out, and came out more like sarcasm than humour.



Just edited the OP to (hopefully) make it clearer.

Originally posted by DAVID64
They are snowballs. I've seen this twice in my whole life. Strong winds cause the snow to start rolling and we all know what happens when you start rolling a snowball..

edit on 27-2-2013 by DAVID64 because: puncuation

Doh! I see someone beat me to it. Saw these a couple years ago here in Illinois. We had snow combined with fairly strong winds. Out here it is flat and the wind started rolling the snow which made some fairly large snowballs.

edit on 27-2-2013 by DAVID64 because: add

The things that you speak of are called snow rollers, different than what is going on at the lake in the OP.

Here are some images of snow rollers.
They require specific conditions to form.
Wikipedia: Snow Rollers

They are quite simple to explain..

They are snowmen eggs...


But no, seriously it's just ice being rolled back and forth forming round shapes as previously suggested by mikell.. I've seen them before myself.

It's no shame, at all, at all. That's weird.

Maybe ET creating snow ball Glyphs?

ET playing in the snow?

ET making first ever snowmen?

reply to post by DAVID64


I thought that too, but to roll something that large would take winds in excess of what we have ever seen right?

They actually do morph and become mini snowmen who gather in driveways and protest global warming.

reply to post by diqiushiwojia


Very intersting op, I have never seen this before. Star for you, I will give you a flag if you further elaborate on how it was a shame you couldnt fear monger about a complety false premise, based on the idea, that the great earth can somhow deal just fine with all the co2 nature spews, yet a tenthousandth of one percent of that amount, ( which is mans total contrabution to co2, if it were a road 5000 miles long, man would be responsible for 6 inches of it) is somehow beyond its ability to deal with.

The only shame I see should be yours for sayjng such an ignorant statement.

Originally posted by inverslyproportional
reply to post by diqiushiwojia

 

Very intersting op, I have never seen this before. Star for you, I will give you a flag if you further elaborate on how it was a shame you couldnt fear monger about a complety false premise, based on the idea, that the great earth can somhow deal just fine with all the co2 nature spews, yet a tenthousandth of one percent of that amount, ( which is mans total contrabution to co2, if it were a road 5000 miles long, man would be responsible for 6 inches of it) is somehow beyond its ability to deal with.

The only shame I see should be yours for sayjng such an ignorant statement.

Thanks for the star.

Yes, it's true that humans' emissions are peanuts compares to what nature releases into the atmosphere, but nature, unlike humans, also removes CO2 from the atmosphere. Man is not so responsible. Nature can't remove the natural CO2 AND our extra CO2.