Ice Formations Along the Shore

The cold weather begins to build up some shelf ice along the shore of Lake Michigan. At this early stage, the ice has not yet formed a shelf, and is completely attached to the land, so it's still safe to explore. In a few days, it will begin to form over the water, and that will be dangerous to venture onto. When the waves begin to mound up the floe ice and ice chunks floating in the lake, the shelf ice will begin to pile up into mounds reaching 15 or 20 feet high. Before that, the ice now forms intricate shapes as the water flows back and forth on the beach. The formations created look a lot like stalactites and stalagmites in caves. I suppose both features are created in a similar manner, only the ice is fast and seasonal, while the limestone formations take thousands of years to form. In this small formation, almost every layer can be seen from the ground up, almost like a topographical map. These same layers can be seen all around the shore at this time, but will eventually be covered in large chunks of ice and snow. Only time will tell if the shelf ice builds hundreds of feet out into the lake, or if it will remain as is for the rest of the winter.