Stunning Cape Breton ice wall attracts photographers
It may be a bit late in the season to say 'Winter is Coming', but Cape Breton's inland sea is putting on a show worthy of a Game of Thrones audition this weekend.
An enormous wall of ice has pushed ashore over the past week, attracting residents from around the island's Bras D'or Lake to marvel at the massive frozen chunks. No sign of Jon Snow (at least, not yet).
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The phenomenon, known as an ice shove or -- informally -- an ice tsunami, occurs when high, unidirectional winds cause ice to break up over a body of water and then pile up along the shore. Ocean currents and simple temperature differences can also cause the effect, where ice appears to 'climb' out of the water and grow into immense, unstoppable walls of ice chunks; sometimes heaping up more than 10 metres high.
(SEE ALSO: Mountains of ice draw gawkers to Lake Erie shoreline)
An image from NASA's MODIS satellite, below, shows the effect of a week of north-northwest winds over the lake, as open water is visible along the northwest shores of the lake, with ice shoved toward the south and east.
Image courtesy NASA.
(RELATED: The six FREAKIEST kinds of winter weather)
This isn't the only ice wall that's drawn photographers across Canada of late. A major ice shove on the shores of Lake Erie also attracted national attention in the wake of a recent wind storm across southern Ontario.
Thumbnail image courtesy Tom Ayers/@tomayers2262
