A TOMB OF ICE...

     Winter finally has come to my part of the country. We had our first cold snap yesterday and it will continue throughout the week.

     I pass by a corporate pond on the way to work. Walking home I noticed the ice was unusually reflective. I figure it must've frozen over very quickly giving the surface a rather glassy appearance. Normally the winds in the area cause the ice to pile up on one side, slowly moving the other edge by the end of the night giving the ice a choppy, white, and certainly unreflective appearance.

     I  went in for a closer look and it was definitely one of those moments I wish I had had my camera. It was bitter cold and my hands would certainly have paid dearly in numbness for the exposure (and who knows how long my camera's battery would've lasted) but there were some neat effects I would have loved to have shared. Maybe tomorrow if the pond remains free of skaters.

     Right at the edge where it is shallowest, it must have been frozen solid. Beneath the clear ice, you could see the decaying leaves which had settled on the bottom. They were eerie looking. Stuck in place, they appeared to have frost on them somehow. Very ghostly looking and surreal. It was like looking into an artsy paperweight.

     Looking over and into the ice at the deeper parts of the pond, you could see the ice had not touched bottom yet, but it was not immediate obvious from my first vantage point. It was only when I stopped to look at it...stare at it...that you could see it moving. Gas bubbles trapped beneath the ice and not yet frozen in place would swirl beneath their cap of clear ice. I don't know what was making them move. The pond overflows into a brook, but no water flows into it. It's at the mercy of the rain. The small fish that live in the pond perhaps?

      Further along the pond's edge came another point where gas bubbles had been rising to the surface perhaps from the leaves seen before. But this time, they did not swirl. On closer inspection, you could see they were frozen in place, not at one level, but at several. I suppose as the ice thickened, it trapped another layer of bubbles until the next set formed beneath it before they too were encased. Again, a neat effect that I'm not sure if a photo could properly capture, but I wished I could have tried.

      Near the pond's other edge the ice had some fractures. My guess is that since water expands when freezing, the whole pond cannot freeze over without exerting pressure on some points. Since the concrete walls bordering it certainly won't give, it must've squeezed the ice sheet itself to break at those points. I didn't see any evidence of water having oozed out and refrozen. Maybe it oozed slowly enough that it froze before reaching the surface of the ice sheet?

      The trailing edge was much like the leading edge. It too appeared frozen solid with ghostly leaves and branches entombed beneath the glassy ice.

      I will bring my camera tomorrow. With luck, the surface will have remained unmolested and I will share some shots here if they come out acceptably. Time to charge the camera's battery!

ADDENDUM:

Entombed leaves with one on the left side sticking above the frozen surface

The largest of the cracks up close

Cracks along the surface and more ghostly leaves

Photos of the gas bubbles frozen at ever greater depths

There was no more motion visible beneath the ice when I took these photos. The pond had frozen too thickly by this point. There's definitely a recovery time that needs to be factored in when exposing one's hands in temperatures like these.