Maine's giant spinning ice disc looks like it's reforming

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/19/maines-giant-spinning-ice-disc-looks-like-its-reforming

by pseudolus • 7 years ago

127 70 7 years ago

dpflan• 7 years ago

An interesting phenomenon. Are we interested in it because it seems to be a rare and observable event that seems “magical”? Or is there a deeper search for meaning here?

ftvy2• 7 years ago

I am certain that someone would have noticed this happening before. Maybe it is a symptom of climate change. Instead of ice being dammed up earlier in the river, it moves further down and freezes in the currents.

spritecranberry• 7 years ago

This sort of speculation harms the argument for climate change more than it helps it. To convince others, it's better to build a case on scientific fact and large-scale issues than one specific interest of a likely-natural oddity.

mkl2• 7 years ago

Ice circles are uncommon, but many people have noticed them before, going back a long time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_circle

What's different about the modern day is that there are 1. way more people to look, 2. way more cameras to record, 3. the internet to disseminate any unusual thing widely.

nwrk• 7 years ago

Looked wikipedia. "An unusual natural phenomenon, ice disks occur in slowly moving water in cold climates and can vary in size, with circles more than 15 metres (49 ft) in diameter..."

There has been few more of them around the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_circle

_bxg13• 7 years ago

The near-perfection of the circular shape is what really makes it stand out. It's strange to see such regularity in natural phenomenons.

agumonkey• 7 years ago

maybe it's a ~logical result of taking the limit of a fractal ?

thisisastopsign• 7 years ago

Not really. Nature is full of beautiful symmetry

danwills4• 7 years ago

Agreed (though circle is pretty common, but,) has anyone ever seen any trace of a mandelbrot-shaped feature anywhere in nature? (I mean the whole set, not just seahorses/etc) I'm on the hunt!

aasasd2• 7 years ago

It's very neat.

starpilot• 7 years ago

this is cursed

cjbest• 7 years ago

Good, it was getting awfully corrupt

k_sze2• 7 years ago

I wonder if, in the absence of gravity (and thus no issue of buoyancy), a spherical ice ball would form in a stream of slow moving cold water...

fiblye• 7 years ago

What would drive a stream in the absence of gravity?

k_sze2• 7 years ago

I assume that can be artificial. Just use a pump.

_nalply• 7 years ago

A disk is rotating its circumference scraping along obstructions such that the growth of ice is steered naturally to a perfect circle. This rotation has a fixed center and axis. A ball however would be scraped towards a cylinder if the same thing happened. To create a ball nature would need the same thing as someone making a wood ball on a belt grinder: vary the rotation axis. However if there are local stability minima, the block of ice would degrade to a preferred rotation configuration. Just thinking aloud here...

Someone• 7 years ago

On the one hand, pebbles are more like spheres than like cylinders. On the other hand, they’re different in that they can only lose weight, whereas this can also grow.

I guess the end result would depend on the shape of the surrounding cave and on what fraction of its volume the object would eventually fill. I don’t see a tumbling cylinder made of ice inside a hollow sphere filled with icy water remain cylindrical in shape, for example.

On the other hand, inside a relatively tall cylindrical space where the water is below freezing temperature, things could be different (does the production of M&Ms involve tumbling?)

raverbashing• 7 years ago

I think it wouldn't, unless there was something making it (also) rotate in a different axis than the water flow

jayd16• 7 years ago

Would it be akin to a river stone? Seems possible.

danwills4• 7 years ago

I'd say some similar long-term chipping dynamics would apply (between river-stone and certain types of icy-water flow) and sphere is then just one of many smooth shapes that you can get out of such a system.

dTal2• 7 years ago

In zero gravity, liquid water will form a sphere all by itself thanks to surface tension.

dTal2• 7 years ago

(Of course, pressure and temperature that sustains liquid water is rarely found in zero gravity, outside of human space stations).

lmilcin2• 7 years ago

In absence of gravity there would be no atmosphere, no pressure, no liquid water and especially no flowing liquid water.

wongarsu3• 7 years ago

You could imagine a glass donut filled with water, as well as a small rotor to move the water in a circle.

You obviously have to balance the water pressure and temperature to reach slow ice formation, and maybe you need a more interesting container shape than a donut to get interesting results.

JoBrad2• 7 years ago

I wonder if water ice in space forms large geometric patterns if it is sufficiently dense.

peter_d_sherman• 7 years ago

"All right stop,

Collaborate and listen,

Ice is back with a brand new invention..."

<g>

jpalomaki• 7 years ago

You can also do these yourself. Just some sticks, rope and chainsaw needed. Throw in an outboard motor and you get a nice carousel.

https://www.sitra.fi/en/news/giant-ice-carousel-spinning-fro...

yardshop• 7 years ago

I walk home most work nights and cross the Presumpscot River on my way. It adds about 20 minutes to go up to that end of town and see it. I did that a couple times last year, and will be doing so this coming Tuesday (since Monday is MLK day). Thankfully the weather will be mostly below freezing until then, although it will go up to 37 today.

I think its the combination of the single digit nights which allow ice to form on the river, and warmer days which let the thin edges break free so it can turn. Then it's the action of grinding against the shoreline ice that creates the round shape, like a block of wood on a lathe under the worker's tools. We got another six inches of snow last night which will help to beef up the solid portion.

It's fascinating that it happened a second time. If I didn't have so much shoveling to do today I would almost be inclined to walk over there and take a look!

rpvnwnkl• 7 years ago

Off topic, but I like to hear about the experiences of tech people living in Maine. If you’d like to chat, send a message to my username at gmail.

SomeCollegeBro• 7 years ago

There's surprisingly many of us! The Portland metro area has some decent opportunities for tech work. Not anything on par with Boston, but it's there.

kevlar1818• 7 years ago

I work nearby and went to check it out some random weekday. There was at least one news crew camped out there. What a time to be alive.

possiblelion• 7 years ago

There are others; such as this one in Estonia. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vana-vigala_spinning_ice_disk.webm

That one is huge compared to the Maine disc as well.

Maine's giant spinning ice disc looks like it's reforming

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