Ice Volcanoes

The ice mounds along the shore of Lake Michigan form as the waves push the drift ice up on shore, or onto the shelf ice. The action of the water and waves creates mounds in a conical shape, where the splashing water comes from the center, and the ice is deposited around the center. This is the same action as a volcano basically, so these mounds are often called "ice volcanoes." These are interesting to view, but very dangerous to get near, or climb upon. The center of the ice volcano is empty, and leads directly to the freezing water below. These are especially interesting to watch when the water is still splashing up through the center. Depending upon the weather, wind, waves, temperature, and even the shape of the beach, the ice forms in sheets or mounds. Here, the lake is mostly drift ice frozen together making something that looks like a solid sheet of ice, with only a few mounds along the shore where the waves once reached. Those mounds on the shore are magnets for visitors taking photos of themselves and their friends. The mound this person is standing on is actually on the shore and quite safe, however, it was very slippery, and slipping off the edge toward the lake would result in a very cold plunge.