THE TEMPORARY GEOLOGY OF WINTER

The current cold snap we're having (actually, it feels more like a cold wallop!) has stilled the lake for as far out as I can see. In the first stage, water began to thicken along the breakwall. To me it kind of resembles magma flowing from an errupting volcano...








...then as the waves cooled further, it turned into a heaving layer of newly forming ice...





After that, the big winds came up. Here's what a day and night of 40 mi/60 km winds can do to the once-flat landscape of ice - whole tectonic plates of frozen lake water bend, break, and ride up over each other until whole ranges of ice are thrust up against the shore. Some peaks out there are as tall as a person! It's an interesting new winter terrain to look at out my window. If the cold keeps up long enough, residents along the shore can scramble out there for some fun. Coyotes and foxes will wander out in search of something to eat, or simply because they can. Farther out, on the flatter stretches, ice-fishing shanties will dot the landscape. Of course this frozen land mass won't last; it's not like a new volcanic island, but while it's there, people and animals will move out to explore and exploit it, just as with any other part of the earth.