Mystery: Why are giant snowballs turning up on Russian beaches?

Snowballs ranging from the size of a tennis ball to globes almost three feet across have been washing up along 11 miles of Russia's Siberian coast.

|
Vasily Fedosenko/ Reuters/ File
A full moon is seen in Tundra near the river of Khanemi, located in the Yamal peninsula above the polar circle, some 2100 km (1305 miles) northeast of Moscow, in this November 24, 2007 file photo.

Residents in parts of western Siberia started noticing a strange phenomenon several weeks ago in the icy Gulf of Ob – hundreds of mysterious snowballs that looked like they might be more at home in a giant snowball fight than an icy sea.

Yet although locals were baffled to discover the frozen orbs floating along the shore, the phenomenon is rare but not unheard of.

"It is a rare natural phenomenon," the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute’s Sergey Lisenkov told the Siberian Times. "As a rule, grease ice forms first, slush. And then a combination of the action of the wind, the outlines of the coastline, and the temperature may lead to the formation of such balls."

The ice balls first appeared several weeks ago. Measuring from about the size of a tennis ball to a much larger exercise ball, the snowballs washed ashore along an 11-mile stretch of Siberia's coast.

In some ways, the ice ball formation process is a familiar one to anybody who has ever built a snowman – instead of humans pushing snowballs around a snowy yard, in this case the wind is what really gets the ball rolling.

Locals say they have never seen snowballs like this before in their lives.

"Even old-timers say they see this phenomenon for the first time," said local leader Valery Akulov, according to the Siberian Times.

Other coastal dwellers around the world are familiar with the phenomenon, however. In 2010, the Chicago Tribune reported on a similar sight in Lake Michigan. A video released by the news outlet showed slushy spheres washing up on the Illinois lakeshore.

In 2015, another Lake Michigan video shows a man wading into the lake’s frigid waters to pick up a massive example of the phenomenon, a hefty ice ball the size of a basketball. NPR reports that across the country, in Maine, the same phenomenon occurred on a local lake.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Mystery: Why are giant snowballs turning up on Russian beaches?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/1108/Mystery-Why-are-giant-snowballs-turning-up-on-Russian-beaches
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe