It’s not often our pond freezes as solidly as it has this winter. We’ve been watching people ice fishing for a while now. Augurs to bore a hole in the ice, sleds to pull the gear, some sort of short pole for the fishing line and maybe a dog to keep them company. But, this morning, it was finally time to dust off the ice skates Amanda has been saving for weather like this.
As a bonus attraction, we got to go out on noisy ice. For about a week, we had been hearing very odd sounds from inside the house, noises that sounded like someone was flexing a large sheet of sheet metal. Could it be a wind turbine? Could it be a loose piece of something at a construction site? It was a real puzzle to us until it occurred to Amanda that it might be the ice on our pond. A little on-line research confirmed her theory. Here’s a link that will explain the phenomenon and give you a sound recording of what we’ve been hearing. It was nice to have a logical explanation before venturing out on the ice and hearing it under your feet.
Dispersion of Sound Waves in Ice Sheets
