Tsunamis on large bodies of water are terrifying, but what if you had to deal with a tsunami of ice? It sounds like it would be a lot more terrifying. Yet in reality, it’s more of an oddity than anything else.
Jim Morgenstern lives on the coast of Lake Winnebago in eastern Wisconsin. He caught a so-called “ice tsunami” in action washing up onto his backyard.
This so-called ice tsunami is actually called a “ice shove.”
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An ice shove occurs when currents or tides shift the surface of a frozen body of water, forcing the ice onto land.
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While the water behaves nearly the same as a tsunami, it’s moving in comparatively slow motion. Most ice shoves never cause any major damage, although they are known to sometimes knock down trees or destroy docks.
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Check out the ice shove in action in the video below.
Via: IFL Science
This is certainly a lot less horrifying than an actual tsunami. Still, if that ice shove goes on for much longer, Morgenstern might have to replace some of those trees in the spring.
