Gas bubbles from rotting vegetation are the likely cause in this instance. See this article for an explanation:
Why are there circles of melted snow on this icy pond?
Submitted 11 months ago by josephos@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e1415555-878f-4c63-95da-d9ad01dcd1d8.jpeg
Comments
lemmefixdat4u@lemmy.world 11 months ago
ace_garp@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Looks like the same thing, good explanation.
ALERT@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
fish farts
josephos@lemmy.world 11 months ago
thefartographer@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I’ll get back to you with some readings
e_mc2@feddit.nl 11 months ago
I snorted my coffee. Thanks.
thefartographer@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Huh… Like off a key or a line or something? Also… Why?
Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 11 months ago
I’m not a hydrologist, but I suspect it’s due to areas of upwelling warmer water. Alternatively, the ice could have formed, but these spots are where the surface was too unstable to permit that (wind?)
rockSlayer@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Yep, this is it. The ice is thinner in those areas, allowing more heat to reach the surface
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That, or some very adventurous ice fishermen were out already. people who ice fish are a strange lot.
(I wouldn’t trust the ice this early in the year with my worst enemy- mostly because they could probably break out on the way back up. shhhh)
Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Ice doesn’t form with even thickness naturally, when it warms back up outside, the thinner parts melt faster, and it kind of snowballs due to currents created and stuff like that. So even if the thin areas didn’t start out that much thinner, they end up melting way faster anyway.
boatsnhos931@lemmy.world 11 months ago
GOT DAMN LOCH NESS MONSTA I TOLD YOU I AIN’T GOT NO TREE FIDDY
CodexArcanum@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Aliums 👽
arocketscientist5@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Onions?
EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
Onion-based aliens.
…they have layers.
BigBlackCockroach@lemmy.world 11 months ago
My best hyptothesis is that in the center of each of those disks a hole may have been or still is through which pond water is wicking upwards and melting the snow in a circular fashion before freezing and coming to a halt. Hence the almost perfect circular shape and the weird lighter color in the center … notice the crack in the center of the disk in the foreground?
ace_garp@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Throws dart…
.
Geothermal vents, or radioactive rocks.
NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The one time when “swamp gas” is the answer, and you miss it. For shame…
TigrisMorte@kbin.social 11 months ago
Where the fish peed.
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Fish ghosts.
username_unavailable@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That’s where decomposing bodies in barrels are releasing gas bubbles as the corpse decomposes. Both because the bubbles are warmer from decomposition and because they disturb the surface of the water, ice formation is disrupted in “warmer below freezing” temperatures.
Source: I’m just winging it bro.
Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 11 months ago
most likely due to varying depth. More shallow will stay warmer I believe because the earth holds temperature longer.
Source: I have a ground source heat pump, which is equivalent to saying I stayed at a holiday inn last night. But it might still be true.
INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone 11 months ago
HOTEL, MOTEL
c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 11 months ago
You can bring your girlfriends, and meet me at the hotel room.
Rakonat@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Shallow water freezes first. Ice acts as an insulator so deep water will get cold but not freeze.
This is likely caused by vegetation at the bottom rotting and the gas rising up till it collects in on area, making the ice thinner and thus higher.
Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Not following why shallow water freezes first.
Candelestine@lemmy.world 11 months ago
My hypothesis:
So, basic principles out of the way first, dark absorbs more sun, white reflects it. As the snow melts and reveals the darker colored water beneath, this will begin a runaway feedback loop that will slowly melt more and more ice. Assuming it’s not too cold out, anyway.
Since this is actually a runaway feedback loop that is going to eventually melt the whole surface of this body of water, we just need to get it started, and everywhere it starts, it’ll spread from. All we need, is something that darkens the surface of the snow.
In the case of that center circle, it’s hard to make out, but I think I see a stick jutting out in the exact center. A brown stick, no less.
MonkRome@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Having been around melting ice a lot I think this is closer to the right answer. Also decomposing things give off heat. Any vegetation that is decomposing will accelerate ice melting.
the_q@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Hot fish.
LongbottomLeaf@lemmy.nz 11 months ago
-Rod Stewart and Tina Turner intensify-
MrShankles@reddthat.com 11 months ago
Cod Stewart and Tuna Turner
Prezhotnuts@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Some stormwater management ponds have aeration systems.
cabillaud@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Swirls in the water?
Hikermick@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Ice fishermen?
Pratai@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Air bubbles I think. Keeps the water moving.
kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Now i want to know the answer 😫
pomodoro_longbreak@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Bird? Snowball? Looks more “soggy” than melted, necessarily.
It is a neat effect. Have you tried making your own melt circle?
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 11 months ago
So, when people go ice fishing, they use an ice auger to drill through the ice. think of it as a 6" (or so) drill bit. for a variety of reasons, when you break through, water usually gets pulled up onto the surface (it’s common to pump the hand crank augers up and down, or with powered augers, well, usually you don’t stop as you break through.)
if you look at the bit front and center, you can see cracks and the hole in the center of the wetspot
SharkAttak@kbin.social 11 months ago
Thought the same, maybe there were ducks hanging out earlier on.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Duck butts look warm, that’s probably it.
HeartyBeast@kbin.social 11 months ago
Just in case you are interested, here is a similar phenomenon - photographed on the moat of Leeds Castle in Kent, UK - back in Jan 2010
Attachment: media.kbin.social ↗HeartyBeast@kbin.social 11 months ago
LongbottomLeaf@lemmy.nz 11 months ago
I’m not seeing anything in either comment.
moshtradamus666@lemmy.world 11 months ago
UFO landing spots
Agent641@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Ok Daniel Jackson lets grt you back to bed.
ryathal@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
If it’s used as part of waste water treatment these could be areas where water is released.
FaceDeer@kbin.social 11 months ago
There are species of seals who actively keep holes open in the ice to use as breathing holes, allowing them to hunt fish even in frozen-over bodies of water.
They're all ocean-dwelling species in the arctic or antarctic oceans, so this isn't the answer to your specific question, but I just think they're neat.
Lepsea@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Before reading the “so this isn’t the answer to your specific question, but I just think they’re neat.” My mind went:
A seal? At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within their pond?
LetterboxPancake@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Yes!