What does the cracking/popping sound really mean?

[turn_in_poachers]

Ive heard of people saying that the sound is actually a good sign. Means new ice is forming. Then again, Ive been out on lakes and heard that sound and noticed long cracks in the ice. So, is this sound a good thing or a bad thing? Or am I the only one that gets nervous when I hear this sound?

[CNY Tim]

I was out on a lake a week ago last Monday and the temp was about zero degrees and it was thumping making ice all day and a couple of times it felt like an earthquake and you almost felt like the bottom dropped out, scary...

[Minnetonka]

I feel safest when the ice is talking. I live on a large lake and on a clear cold night it sounds kind of eerie, like whales singing, if you have ever heard that. The sound comes from the fact that as water turns to ice, it expands 9%. As the ice expands it pushes outward in all directions and it will crack, pop and sometimes form heaves where I have seen the ice form a wall up to 6 feet high. Sometimes I have seen wind push on the ice and it will make the same sounds as it shifts and cracks as the pressure becomes too much in some areas. So as a general rule, the ice is getting thicker as it makes noise and most cracks will be no more then a half inch wide. I have see some up to a foot but they are rare and usually during early ice.

[S.D. Ice Angular]

WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!

6-Foot Walls?????????????

Minnetonka, where were you Siberia???????

C’mon seriously 6 Feet????

[Bobb-o]

I have seen them up to 7 and 8 feet on Red Lake

[Walterwontfalter]

On Mille Lacs as a teenager we drove a 3 wheeler up to the pressure ridge and standing on top of the gas tank I couldn't reach on my tippy-toes to teh top of the wall of ice. I'm 6'5".

[turn_in_poachers]

My coworker said he's seen some up to 6 feet on Mille Lacs. So Im not surprised. But that sound has forced me to cut my fishing short most of the time. I guess its just me then. I should get over the sound before I go up to Red Lake in February. I dont want something like that ruining my weekend of fishing. I bet the long time ice fishermen get a kick out of watching how newbie fishermen react when they hear that sound.

[Random guy]

Quote:

---

WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!

6-Foot Walls?????????????

Minnetonka, where were you Siberia???????

C’mon seriously 6 Feet????

---

How about twenty feet? I don't remember the year but it was on Red

[Steve Foss]

We were on LOW in a sleeper off one of the south shore resorts several years back, and were almost asleep about midnight when we started to hear a rumble that people later described variously as an avalanche, a freight train, an angry boss building steam, a tornado, and an ex-wife's tirade.

It grew in volume and the ice started shaking. Pretty soon no one could stand up or stay anchored in one place, the rocking and rolling got so bad. As the quake reached its crescendo, two of us leapt out of the house in our long johns, scrambling across the snow and trying to stand up while not spilling our drinks.

The tremor passed beneath us and soon faded away into the distance, leaving us out of breath, full of adrenaline.

You guessed it. We two were the big-ice rookies, and had never heard a pressure ridge form miles away. It's like a tidal wave along the ice. Who'd have thought that something rigid and two feet thick would flex like that?

So the two of us stood out there shivering, and one of the vets came to the door and wondered with studied nonchalance to his smug cronies inside how advisable it would be, in the event that a pressure ridge was actually forming underneath us at that moment, to jump out of a wooden (floating) fish house into the crack between moving ice sheets.

The next day, the fellow was frying fish in oil on the burner in the shack and asked for more oil. What got handed to him was a bottle, but it did not have oil in it. He tossed the contents into the frying pan. Accompanying the subsequent arson charge was a mug shot of him minus eyebrows, and with a hairline that had receded two inches. His skin also was an alarming shade of magenta.

It can get tough out there on the ice.

[LMITOUT]

One winter a few years back I drove up to a local lake to see what was happening and noticed a wall from one point to another point across the bay. At first I wondered why somebody would have plowed a wall of snow all the way across........whoa, that's a heave! Never saw one that big on a lake that small in size. There were vehicles on either side of the heave and it was as tall as them. I'm guessing a good 5' from my vantage point on shore. Unbelievable.

Heaves typically occur in the same location every year so it's a good thing to make a mental note of where they are at. A buddy of mine fell through one with his snowmobile that opened up and then had just refroze. There wasn't an upheave with this one.....just cracked open, and it's usually pretty weak on either side of it for few feet as well.

[metrojoe]

WOW...That is an awesome pic.

[Desperado]

JONNY P, great photo

STFCATFISH = Pat McManus ??

[kc0myy]

I stared ice fishing about 3-4 years ago. I never really was scard of the ice. I know a few times retard drove their truck out and the ice popped and cracked. Otherwise if the ice popped and cracked it dont brother me. If it right under my house yeah I will get up and make sure everything ok but the ice talking never really scard me.

[Steve Foss]

Desperado, I should be so lucky.

[nytelyter]

that is the thing i miss most this year. i have not yet (and prolly wont) put out my sleeper. and the co will atest to you that i spend every night out in it when it is out. but i miiss the sound of that ice poppin and cracking. it is like hearing rain fall on a spring night or a stream rustleing by and lulls me to sleep so soundly. welll the second thing i miss most this year would be the bells of my rattle reel wakeing me up from that sound sleep. oh welll better safe than sorry there is always next year. .... paul

[icehousebob]

I was heading onto Mille Lacs early in the AM fog. Well, an Ice ridge had formed across the road during the night and I saw it late. The snow had melted off the road so my brakes were not going to stop me. My only choice was to lay off the brakes and turn into the plowed up snowbank on the edge of the road. It took us a while to dig the truck out but at least we didn't give the truck swimming lessons.

[gspman]

It's the expansion of ice when it's getting colder and the contraction of ice when it's getting warmer. Somethings got to give because the whole ice sheet doesn't expand or contract at the same rate. For some weird reason I love it when the ice is singing and find it comforting at night when I'm zonking out in a sleeper house.

[Havin' Fun]

Yup, the ice sure is cracking this year. I've actually seen the ice moving this year and breaking up...really neat!

Winnebago here in Eastern Wisconsin gets Ice Shoves in the spring that tower over houses! I will look for some pictures, but they are from wind blown ice in the spring that pile up! It's truly a magnificent site unless it's your house being destroyed! BTW, lots of people losing trees this year along the lake shore and lots of large mystery bolders poping up in people yards as well!

[The Grebe]

The ice crackles, moans and groans when it is making ice. Even so, it is still hair raising when you hear one of them big cracks comming your way!

On Mille Lacs, years ago, we had one come under the portable fishhouse, that was so strong, it shot water about 2 feet out of the holes...now if that wouldn't get someones attention and change your expression, you better join the national poker tour!

We didn't know what the he11 it even was at the time? Sounded like a train comming? We thought our game was over, thats for sure!

Anyways, even though it is a good sign of making ice, it's still spooky!

[SXViper]

Actually GPSman,

As the temp drops the ice contracts. THe cracking and popping is the ice cracking, and water fills the cracks. When the temp warms up the ice expands, that is when you will get heaves. Here is a link to the MN DNR page explaining about lake ice.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/waters/watermgmt_section/pwpermits/blockbuster.html

Brian

[SXViper]

Here is the part of the arcticle ,

Ice on a lake surface expands or contracts with the rise and fall of the air temperature, and since air temperatures have a considerable range of fluctuation in winter, the ice changes in volume. An appreciable drop of temperature causes the ice to contract, producing cracks which refill with more ice [freezing water]. When a subsequent rise in temperature produces an expansion of the whole ice mass, a tremendous force is exerted against the shore.

If the shore is of such a nature that the ice cannot shove, it may buckle. Buckling is not uncommon, even in very thick ice sheets. Whether or not expanding ice will push up the shore or buckle depends on whether there are enough weak spots in the ice sheet to permit the release of this pressure by the buckling of the sheet or crumbling of its edges, both of these conditions being somewhat dependent on the water depth near the shore.

If the shores are gently sloping, the expanding ice overrides them, but if the shore materials are of a yielding sort, an irregular ridge called an ICE RAMPART is likely to be formed by shoving a portion of the marginal material to a higher level, and leaving it in the form of a ridge. Such ice ramparts may be several feet in height, and may contain large boulders. Where conditions are such that ice ramparts once formed become permanent, successive shoves may build up a considerable accumulation of displaced materials, thus forming an ICE-PUSH TERRACE.

Similarly, dropping temperatures cause contraction of the ice layer. As ice is very weak in tension, the stress is usually released by numerous tension cracks. The ice sheet already shoved up on the bank is not retracted but remains perched on the bank. Contraction of ice is usually harmless. However, the combination of alternate expansion and contraction causes a ?ratchet? or ?jacking? action that is more severe than either force separately.

As contraction takes place at colder temperatures, the water that rises in the tension cracks freezes at once, filling and sealing them. When temperatures rise again, the cracks cannot close, and the entire expansion must take place at the edges of the sheet. Compression cracks due to buckling also freeze solid and are stronger than before. Each cycle of contraction and expansion shoves the edges of the sheet farther up the bank.

The coefficient of linear expansion of ice, according to Ganot, is 0.000052 per degree of temperature rise, and thus for a 10? F variation in an ice sheet a mile long, the change in length would approximate 2.75 feet while the force exerted is probably not less than 30,000 pounds per square foot.

[S.D. Ice Angular]

WOW!!!

Jon P. nice picture, I have got to get out on them northern big lakes.

Does anyone know where some big ones are this year?

[mjames]

Folks, Look in your Physics Books. Water is at its' densest point at 39 degrees farenheit. As it gets colder, it expands. Even after it becomes ice. The noises are made by the ice expanding. You never have to worry about the ice deteriating when it's "talking". When the ice is silent, then be careful. If you ice fish in the spring, I'll bet you've never heard the ice making noise when the temps are rising. Think about it.

[IndyEFI500]

Let's start off by stating that my wife is a true city girl and me the country boy. We got invited by my sister to rent a fish house once about six years ago. I was reluctant since friends of mine were about 100 yards away and I had slept in their shacks many times and could have for free. The temp had been about 30 deg that day and it plummeted to about -10 that night. At about 10 that night the cracking was giving'er pretty good. She was freaking since we had our one year old son with. I explained the physiscs and mistakenly told her about ice heaves and that I had seen them up to 6 feet tall on that very lake. She wanted to know how to tell if one was coming. Like a freight train I foolishly told her. You can guess what happened an hour later as we were sleeping. She drove to my mom's house and has never been on the ice since.