Mysterious Ice Circle Discovered In North Dakota River

It's not everyday that you see a near-perfect circle of ice resting on top of a river (see image to the right). After all, how can a patch of ice have such geometric symmetry that it's comparable to a full circle? Well, this phenomenon recently occurred in a North Dakota river, leaving residents, meteorologists and scientists debating over what caused it. To learn more about North Dakota's mysterious ice circle, keep reading.

It was a normal hunting excursion for 73-year-old George Loegering, who was out hunting in the North Dakota wilderness with some relatives on a chilly Saturday morning. Aside from the fact that he hadn't bagged any game, what made this hunting trip different, however, was the mysterious circle of ice he noticed spinning in North Dakota's Sheyenne River.

"At first I thought, no way! It was surreal. You looked at it and you thought, how did it do that?," said Loegering. Stumbling upon this floating circle of ice startled Loegering, but he was also intrigued by it. He's hunted these lands for many years, and this is the first time he'd ever seen something quite like this.

Rather than simply walking past this bizarre phenomenon, Loegering, who worked previously as an engineer for several years, pulled out his digital camera and took several photos. After finishing up his day of hunting, Loegering went back home and hopped on the computer where he scoured the internet for answers. It took some digging and consulting with his relatives, but Loegering eventually found the answers he was looking for.

Was it little green men from outer space that created this ice circle? (perhaps they were tired of making crop circles). Or maybe it's some sort of ultra-secretive government experiment that's gone horribly wrong and is now growing to epidemic proportions?. Sorry to all of you conspiracy theorists out there, but North Dakota's floating/spinning ice circle is actually a natural occurrence. Although it's somewhat rare, there have been similar reports of floating ice in the geometric shape of circles.

The general consensus is that the circle of ice is caused by the river's eddy currents combined with the freezing cold temperatures. The cold temperatures turn the water on top of the river into ice, and the eddy currents create a circular motion (like a washing machine). The ice isn't exactly a sheet but instead a mass of many tiny floating ice particles. Of course, this is just what some government agent would want you to believe, right?