We are finally getting some snow. The temperature is just above freezing, so the snow is fairly wet and packable. As usual in the morning, I walked around the pond. When I got to the dam side, I was puzzled when I saw a big platter-sized hole in the ice. I have no idea how a hole got there. Two days ago, the ice was thick enough for me to walk on, in fact, I think those three long snow-covered areas below the hole are from my footsteps.
My first thought when I saw the hole was that some animal had broken through the ice, but there were no tracks around it, and the edges around the hole don’t suggest a struggle of some critter trying to climb out. The splatter-shape of the hole suggests an impact, but surely if a tiny meteorite had hit the ice there would be bits of broken ice thrown up around the perimeter of the hole.
I guess the hole could have been formed by the expansions and contractions of the ice, causing a break the ice in a weak spot.
The only other thing that I can think of that might have caused the hole, is warmer water coming from a spring at the bottom of the pond, but I don’t think that would cause the ray-like areas emanating the hole.
I just don’t know. It’s a mystery.
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