In case you’ve never heard the sound of 45mm ice, here it is. 😉 I’m among the lucky ones who heard it lots of times while ice skating on lakes like the one in the clip.
We call it singing ice.
https://youtu.be/66a3_MGTDoA
Did you notice the ice rippling at about 2:35 when the skater went over it?
Longshadow wrote:
Did you notice the ice rippling at about 2:35 when the skater went over it?
Yes I did. Happy to see you noticed it! 😃
My brother went thru singing ice about 70 years ago. Glad the pond was not deep and he crawled out. That ice was too thin and if he had stopped, he might have heard a splash as his last sound...
I watch the video and didn't catch the rippling ice until I read Longshadow's response. So I went back to 2:35 on the video and saw that, too. It's all amazing. Thanks for posting, both of you.
Longshadow wrote:
Did you notice the ice rippling at about 2:35 when the skater went over it?
The sound is even better in real life. On larger lakes it’s a tiny echoe added to it. It’s a beautiful sound - but scared the crap out of me the first time I heard it. From between my feet I saw the crack literally fly away in front of me.
As ice grows in all directions the sound is created when the ice grows larger than the space between the shores of the lake as well as the islands. This means that as the singing is heard, due to ice growth, it becomes thicker, stronger, and therefore safer as well.
1cm of sweet water ice thickness is enough to carry a normal person. 10cm is enough to carry a normal car. Salt water ice is different from sweet water ice and requires twice the thickness to carry a person or a car. Furthermore, sweet water ice is hard as glass, salt water ice is softer.
Boris Ekner wrote:
The sound is even better in real life. On larger lakes it’s a tiny echoe added to it. It’s a beautiful sound - but scared the crap out of me the first time I heard it. From between my feet I saw the crack literally fly away in front of me.
As ice grows in all directions the sound is created when the ice grows larger than the space between the shores of the lake as well as the islands. This means that as the singing is heard, due to ice growth, it becomes thicker, stronger, and therefore safer as well.
1cm of sweet water ice thickness is enough to carry a normal person. 10cm is enough to carry a normal car. Salt water ice is different from sweet water ice and requires twice the thickness to carry a person or a car. Furthermore, sweet water ice is hard as glass, salt water ice is softer.
The sound is even better in real life. On larger l... (
show quote)
Thanks you for the added information!
Boris Ekner wrote:
The sound is even better in real life. On larger lakes it’s a tiny echoe added to it. It’s a beautiful sound - but scared the crap out of me the first time I heard it. From between my feet I saw the crack literally fly away in front of me.
As ice grows in all directions the sound is created when the ice grows larger than the space between the shores of the lake as well as the islands. This means that as the singing is heard, due to ice growth, it becomes thicker, stronger, and therefore safer as well.
1cm of sweet water ice thickness is enough to carry a normal person. 10cm is enough to carry a normal car. Salt water ice is different from sweet water ice and requires twice the thickness to carry a person or a car. Furthermore, sweet water ice is hard as glass, salt water ice is softer.
The sound is even better in real life. On larger l... (
show quote)
I think your estimates of safe ice thickness is a little thin, here is a link to a chart from the farmer's almanac that while not metric the ice is a lot thicker than what you are saying, 2.54CM = 1 inch and they say 3 inches of ice for one person.
https://www.almanac.com/sites/default/files/d6/258_icethickness.pdfI wouldn't be venturing out on any 1cm of ice!
Thanks, brings back fond memories of skating on Nine mile pond in Wilbraham MA
That reminds me of the terror I felt about 60 years ago as I frantically skated on glass smooth "Black Ice" across the deepest part of Hudson Lake. A-h-h-h, youth....
I used to own a cottage on a lake in NE PA and tried to skate on it several years. The ice was usually too rough from being frozen while winds were blowing over the freezing water. I don't ever recall seeing glassy smooth ice there. Early in the last century the ice was harvested for (pre - refrigerator) ice boxes as it would freeze to several feet in depth. The ice would be kept in ice houses insulated with sawdust and straw, for distribution to businesses and home owners during the summer. Large saws (hand held crosscut) were the tools to cut the ice into manageable blocks. On that same lake in the late 40's and 50's there were car races on the ice around a marked off oval. Great sport! I took photos with my Kodak Brownie on 126 (?) film.
I remember skating on "singing" black ice as a kid. Our folks would have had a fit if they'd realized we were skating on such thin ice. But, no one ever went in. I think it was because were were
a lot lighter in those days than we are today.
Used to summer vacation on Bryant Pond, ME for years. There was an island with a formidable house on it and as I sat drinking my morning coffee, I wondered how they got the materials on the island to build. I figured they airlifted it, until I noticed the chart on the kitchen bulletin board. It listed how many inches or feet would allow what size/weight vehicle could drive over the ice. Mystery solved.
Sweet footage, and the sound is beautiful. Curious how, on what look like drone shots, they negate the sound of the drone....
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