Caesar Pond Ice Patterns

Drew photographing the ice - CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO SEE MORE DETAIL!

What a great day to be out on Caesar Pond! Drew and I put on our YakTrax and headed out to photograph patterns in the ice. After so much rain, the ice was smooth and gloriously patterned, layer upon layer down into the depths. Outdoor temp. 29F with a windchill of 19F.

There were lots of cracks in the ice, of all shapes and sizes. 

This one stretched for a long distance and was surrounded by millions of air bubbles.

This one had some twists and turns and extended down at least 6 inches from the surface.

This one caught my eye with its triangular pattern.

And, this crack shows crystals radiating out from the central line.

Speaking of cracks, check out what I call ice neurons!

I think these ice neurons are created from spreading water from old ice fishing holes when the ice was thinner? I'm not sure. I have catalogued all of the springs in the pond that I know of, and I don't think this is a result of one.

And, here is a close-up of an ice neuron center with it spreading dendrites!

Then, there were disks of bubbles of all shapes and sizes. This is one of the flat surface bubbles.

This was a common disk design in many spots. Could it arise from a plume of water rising as surface ice was freezing over? Then, the plume froze? Maybe...

And, here are a series of disks through layers of ice!

I love this radiating design from the central point of this circle. Lots of geometry on the ice!

Then, there were these clear bubbles which were rather rare. I wish we could show more depth of field as these were above the main bubble.

And, this mishappen bubble upon a bubble was fairly common.

Now, let's check out the ice domes under the surface!

Like magma rising from the depths of a volcano, we think a bubble of water rose up toward the ice fishing hole as it was freezing.

Some of the domes have very precise borders from an auger that drilled the ice, and the domes are perfectly rounded.

Others have a flattened disk on top of the dome. And, yes the surface ice is flat over the top of the domes.

Check out this dome near the eastern shore. The ice curved around it as if from the surface water being blown by the wind. Notice that the thin center ice disk has broken in the middle.

I call this one a dome volcano! It looks like there were air bubbles galore surfacing from the central disk atop the dome. Cool!

And, then there are what we call the ice vortices! Check out this tube that opens up to a concave disk on top. You can see ice crystals along the vortex tube.

This vortex has a bit of texture on the concave top. Why these "vortices" form, I have no idea. Gotta do some research!

And, this is my favorite topped with what looks like ice foam.

Last of all is what I call an ice rosette. It has a more complex structure below the ice. It too is near the eastern shore, and may have been created by wind blown water as it rose and froze.