Ok - This is Weird

alwayslearning

alwayslearning

Well-known member
I'm walking down the sidewalk today. It is 11 F with wind and partly cloudy with flurries. Right there in front of me is this column of ice about the diameter of a large drinking straw and about 6-8 inches tall. The base, barely distinguishable in the photo is very clear. Nothing around ... just flat concrete and this little icicle that didn't learn about gravity or something. It jiggled in the wind so I was hoping I could run home and grab my camera before it broke. Here's the pic.

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Larry
 
Well, it was frozen to the concrete and it was wiggling slightly in the wind. I'd have to say no to someone putting it there .....

Larry
 
What I mean is, somebody could have held it there until it froze.

I don't think something like that could form naturally in the middle of a sidewalk.
 
He's pulling your leg guys. The photo has been altered in Photoshop. Notice how the icicle tapers as it approaches the ground? Also, look at some of the edges near the "top". It has gone through the Liquify filter. And the ground at the "base" is devoid of snow, but has no caustics or any other light refraction which would be present looking through cylindrical shaped ice.

Nice eye trickery though.
 
Wow Matt ... I didn't expect that. I really didn't think people would believe me and is the reason I went back to take the photo. The only thing photoshop did to this photo is make it 72 pixels per inch so I could post it.

What you see is what I saw. It is not a trick. Even if I did do something like that, in my post I would say it was a trick.

One thought I had almost right away, even before I got my camera, was that maybe a car had been sitting there and water dripped off of it to the ground and when the car drove away, that was left. A few problems with that though. Other than a few, very dry, very cold flurries yesterday morning, we have no snow. It's been gone for at least a week. So what would have been on a car to drip off? And with the temps we had yesterday, I can guarantee you that nothing was melting yesterday and even more so today, but that's irrelevant to the photo. Also, if that happened, when the car left, I would think that top of the thing would be more like a break than rounded like it is.

Another thought I had ... On rare occasions, I don't know what causes it, I will take a tray of ice cubes out of the freezer and there will be these little 1/4 to 1/2 inch high points of ice sticking up from some of the cubes. I was wondering if this was the same thing only on a large scale?

Larry
 
Not to argue with Matt's analysis, but it's possible that expansion of water during freezing could force some water through an orifice in the concrete, which was subsequently frozen.
 
Hmm. I stand corrected. It looked so strange and out of place (not having a base that could be seen, mainly), I thought you were having some fun with us. I have done similar things in the past. :thumbsup:

I have no idea how something like that would form, very odd indeed.

Try looking up stalagmite formation, and you may get an idea how it was created.
 
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The sidewalk section where this silly thing is, is in front of a driveway which is why my first thought was that it could be somehow related to a car having had been there. I think I ruled out melting snow in my last post. This morning someone I talked to wondered if it might be from the water that drips out of a tail pipe sometimes when a car is started. Seems though if that was the case, when the car left, if would have run over the thing. Seems the car would have to had been sitting there for quite a while too. I'm stumped. J Michael's idea might have something to it .. I'll be going by there in a little bit .. I'll be quite surprised if it is still there. Going to Cleveland in a little bit ... so I'm not sure when I'll post again ... maybe late tonight or later tomorrow.

Larry
 
The only thing I can think of is that it indeed formed from an exaust pipe. If someone had a car with a remote starter and used it to warm up the car before getting into it (as many do in winter), there would be time for the car's exaust to melt the top of the collum and seperate it from the pipe. Then, when the car pulled away, it wouldn't fall.
 
I've seen it before, it's from a car exhaust pipe. He warmed his car up for a while. When he left, this remained.
 
I'm leaning towards the car exhaust thing too. The only issues with that though is if the car was pulled in front ward, it would have backed over it on the way out and if it was backed in, the exhaust would have been so that the ice column was more in the middle of the two car drive. I guess you might have to have seen the real life thing to know exactly what I mean by that, plus the front of the car would have been out on the street. I guess it was just a very weird thing to have come upon as I walked to see nothing around or overhead and there's this little column of ice sticking up from flat, plain concrete. I still think it is amazing even if from an exhaust pipe, that the water would pile up like that.

Oh well ... back to photography I guess ..... thanks guys. It's been fun thinking about it. And you're right Ryan, it's not made up ... not sure it would be dumb, but it's not made up. :)

Larry, heading back from Cleveland soon

p.s. BTW, on my way here, I went past the mystery location and it was no longer there.
 
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