Ice eggs smash into frozen coast of Lake Erie

It's the heart of winter, and icy conditions have frozen part of the coast of Lake Erie, but over the weekend, a puzzling frozen phenomenon was seen slamming into the coastline.

A wave hit Fort Erie fishing guide Denis Kreze while he was recording a video on the icy shores of Lake Erie on Feb. 18, 2024. He admitted he "took a major ice bath" from the wave and that his clothes were frozen by the time he returned to his truck. Kreze's camera had captured a rare frozen phenomenon known as ice balls.

Ice balls, also known as ice eggs, are formed when the undulation of a body of water breaks off pieces of ice and smooths them until they are spherical or egg-shaped. Occasionally, the same conditions can create much larger chunks of ice called ice boulders.

Ice balls can vary in color from gray to white, depending on how muddy and turbulent the lake is. The icy phenomenon has been sighted on shores across the world, from the Great Lakes to Europe and Russia.

Ice formations come in many different shapes, including pancake ice, rime ice, ice rings, ice disks, turquoise ice, sea-spray ice, ice spikes, ice donuts, ice pushes, ice bells and chandelier ice.

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