Hikers Find a Rare Spinning Ice Disk at the Foot of a Scottish Waterfall

While Dan Brown was hiking with his father at Beinn Bhuidhe in the Scottish Highlands near the head of Loch Fyne, they stopped for water and looked down to see a rare and beautiful ice disc spinning at foot of the waterfall below. Brown told Metro UK that they never expected to see such a sight.

We took a break to fill our water bottles from the burn by the track – that’s when we noticed the ice disk slowly spinning at the foot of a small waterfall. …Visibility wasn’t great, but after about an hour and a half, the snow stopped and cloud cover started to clear. Neither of us had ever seen anything like it – a perfect circle of ice slowly rotating in the water, so we thought it must be a rare occurrence and took some photographs and videos.

Ice circles form through a natural phenomenon called rotational shear, in which the force of moving currents breaks off a piece of ice and spins it into a frozen disk.

In December, paddleboarders Paul Sendin and Tim Frater captured incredible photos of many smaller ice “pancakes” sitting upon the River Tyne.

Spotted these unusual ‘ice pancakes’ on the river Tyne this morning! Apparently they are a rare phenomenon- who knew?

via Boing Boing

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.

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