Ice Field on Lake Michigan

As a spell of warmer weather hits the area, the ice and snow begin to melt a bit, exposing some of the sand that sits on the ice mounds along the lake. The sand was kicked up onto the mounds as they formed, and now gets concentrated as some ice melts on the surface of the mounds. These mounds are about 15 feet tall, and will remain in place even as the temperatures climb. Some of them are resting on the bottom of the shallows along the shore, while others were only floating on the surface of the water. It's the floating ones that are most affected by warmer weather; they crack, break and wash away rather quickly.

Here you can see holes in the mounds, proving that these are not always solid, and can be hollow inside. Walking on what seems to be a thick, solid chunk of ice can be deadly if a hollow spot is only covered by a thin sheet of ice. These hollow spots often lead directly to the frigid waters of Lake Michigan where there is no escape.

 

So many formations can be seen in the ice. These mounds often remind me of mountains seen from a high altitude, and in this formation where a small, blue pond has formed and frozen, this really looks like a landscape seen from high above.