Break-up 2010

Following the long stretch of warm weather we had for most of March, the night time temperature dropped to -16 one night.  It is the extreme temperature changes that make the ice stretch and shrink...and thus pressure cracks result. 

 

I took a walk on the ice the next morning.  The Kukagami Loch-ness monster was roaring!  Crack and clump, ripping cracks continued to go everywhere.  But the ice had nowhere to move.  so it groaned and complained.  Then it rose along this crack between the Island and the shore in front of the lodge.

 

It had to bend on the lake-ward side, because the ice stretched more than could fit between the shores.

The crack on the right has risen about a foot above the rest of the ice, and the dip has sunk more than a foot below the water level.

 

You can see the stress lines under the water.