It’s almost an annual tradition. When the conditions are just right, small waves push sheets of Lake Superior surface ice to the shore, causing them to break into plates that stack and crackle in a way that’s both visually and aurally fascinating. Dawn LaPointe and Gary Fiedler of Radiant Spirit Gallery recently captured the phenomena in this video.

From the YouTube description:

A light breeze and small waves were enough to put fresh ice floes on the move across Lake Superior. The new ice was covered with frost flowers, which likely gave the wind more surface area to grab to move the ice. The texture of the frost also limited how much the plates could slide over one another. At lake level, the sound of the plates breaking and stacking on shore was deafening. Standing on the shore while the massive ice floe moved toward us triggered the feeling of humbleness that Lake Superior has on many people. We admire Nature’s grace and beauty as well as her raw power and ability to sculpt the shorelines with wind, waves, and ice. It is worth wearing our winter layers in frigid, subzero temps to see what Lake Superior offers each day.