Rare spinning 'ice disc' phenomenon captured in Quebec
Herven Horth of Hope, Que., goes out hundreds of times a winter, but he'd never before seen anything like it
A group of snowshoers in Quebec's Gaspé region came across an other-worldly scene Tuesday afternoon.
While they were out enjoying the snow in the village of Hope, Que., they saw a disc of ice, about three metres across, spinning on the surface of a small river.
"It's not normal," said Herven Horth, one of the snowshoers who filmed the spinning ice disc.
He said he goes out snowshoeing about 100 times a year, but this was the first time he'd seen anything like this.
He was surprised by their discovery, later doing some research to figure out what exactly they had witnessed.
The phenomenon occurs when a circular current below the ice creates a whirlpool effect, Mark Battle, an associate physics professor at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, told CBC's As it Happens.
He spoke with host Carol Off earlier this year when an ice disc about 10 times larger than the one Horth witnessed was seen in Maine.
This article was originally published by CBC News and written by Colin Harris.