Why are giant snowballs washing up on this Russian beach?
- 8 years ago
NYDA, RUSSIA — Giant snowballs that stretch as far as the eye can see have washed up on a beach in Russia.
The snowballs are spread out 18 km along the coastline of the Gulf of Ob in western Siberia and come in a variety of sizes, Al Jazeera reported.
The smallest are as large as a tennis ball, but they can grow to the size of a giant beach ball.
The balls start off as fragments of ice in the near-frozen sea. A combination of the wind and tide rolls them around near the shore until they wash up on the beach. Once on the beach, the balls freeze and are coated by more ice and snow.
The balls are made up of concentric bands of sand and slush, Al Jazeera reported.
The giant snowball phenomenon isn’t unique to Russia. In recent years, similar ice balls have been seen at Lake Michigan and a lake in Maine in the United States.
The snowballs are spread out 18 km along the coastline of the Gulf of Ob in western Siberia and come in a variety of sizes, Al Jazeera reported.
The smallest are as large as a tennis ball, but they can grow to the size of a giant beach ball.
The balls start off as fragments of ice in the near-frozen sea. A combination of the wind and tide rolls them around near the shore until they wash up on the beach. Once on the beach, the balls freeze and are coated by more ice and snow.
The balls are made up of concentric bands of sand and slush, Al Jazeera reported.
The giant snowball phenomenon isn’t unique to Russia. In recent years, similar ice balls have been seen at Lake Michigan and a lake in Maine in the United States.