A Giant Spinning 'Ice Disk' Has Formed In Maine & It Looks Like A Magical Vortex
How is this even real? 🤯
Nature is putting on a show in Maine, where a rare quirk of the water and the weather has produced a stunning, hypnotic disk of swirling ice.
The disk is several dozen metres wide and almost perfectly round, photos show.
It’s gently swirling in the middle of the Presumpscot River in Westbrook, Maine, where locals have been taking some truly stunning photos over the past week.
We’d definitely be tempted to try skating on it, but Westbrook officials say it’s not safe. It also looks quite choppy around the edges, so you probably couldn't do much if you did get onto it.
This is the third time the disk has formed in the same spot, but the first time it's happened since the pandemic began.
"Sorry, not sorry. We can't help but be excited for the return of the world famous Westbrook Ice Disk!" the town wrote on Facebook. "Let's enjoy it for as long as it's here in our city."
The disk first appeared in 2019, local station WLWT reports. It maxed out at a whopping 91 metres across at the time, and it stunned the internet for weeks before melting in the spring weather.
The disk formed again in 2020 but it did not appear last winter.
Such disks are extremely rare but not unheard of, according to Chris Horvat, a scholar at Brown University who specializes in studying sea ice formations. He explained how the disk forms through a combination of cold temperatures and the river's geometry in 2019.
"You get this circulation pattern that on the surface looks like a vortex," Horvat said in a news release from Brown back in 2019. "Ice that's formed downstream will hit this vortex and form an ever-larger chunk. As it spins, it rubs against the side of the river and that's what makes it symmetrical."
We have no idea how long it'll last, but some say it's gentle spin has already slowed down.
That means if you're in the area, you'd better check it out before it's gone!