Lake Michigan is popping off.
A cold snap in the Great Lakes region has spurred the formation of “ice volcanoes” across the lake: conical structures of snow and ice on the lake’s surface that expel water, à la lava from a volcano.
The National Weather Service’s Twitter account for the Grand Rapids region shared an image of the unusual phenomenon over the weekend.
The caption read, “It was a great day to visit the beach and watch the waves interact with the ice. Here’s a couple ‘ice volcanoes’ erupting at Oval Beach on Sunday, February 16, 2020.”
“You never know what you’ll find at the lake until you go out there,” they continued in a follow-up tweet. “Today it was volcanoes.”
Meteorologist Tom Niziol, formerly of the Weather Channel and NWS and now a writer for the Category 6 blog on WeatherUnderground.com, calls these “some of the best photos of ice volcanoes” he’s ever seen. On Facebook, he explained the physics behind the bizarre sighting.
“They form as water is pushed under the ice sheet and as the pressure builds up the water shoots out through holes in the ice. If its very cold, then that spray freezes up eventually building a cone like the ones we see here,” Niziol wrote.
He also warned lake-goers that these hills were not made for climbing.
“They can be very dangerous to climb on however because they are hollow and built over that hole in the ice. Don’t ever go venturing out onto them!”
The Greak Lakes are known for cold weather curiosities. On other occasions, these prehistoric glacial lakes may freeze over then shatter to create a blanket of ice shards across the body of water, or transform lakefront homes into giant igloos as a result of frozen water spray. Sometimes, the ambient temperature drops so quickly that the warmer water on the surface begins to vaporize instantly, which makes the lake appear to be boiling.
The same lake that is currently spewing slushy freshwater was photographed tossing “ice balls” ashore last week near Holland State Park, formed by “floating slush that wave action sculpts into spheres,” according to the NWS.
Despite the region’s fascinating winter climate, some locals say they’re best observed in photos.
One Chicago-based weather-watcher wrote, “Very cool but definitely like #GrandRapids (GR) better in the middle of #Boating season!👍 🌊😎.”
