What are ice discs, how are they formed and what was the latest sighting in Maine?
A gigantic floating plate of ice has appeared in the US city of Westbrook in Maine
A MASSIVE floating disc of ice spotted on a river running through Maine, USA, has left many people scratching their heads.
What is the 300-metre wide ice disc and how are the formed? Here is everything you need to know about ice disks.
What are ice discs and how are they formed?
The unusual but fascinating frozen structure is a natural phenomenon fairly common to the colder climates of North America.
They form on the outer bends of rivers where the water coming through creates currents.
The formations were also observed in Wales and England during the winter of 2008-9.
The currents cause chunks of ice to break off and rotate. As the ice chunks spin, they continue to do so against the surrounding ice.
This then smooths out the edges to create circles or discs.
What is the ice disc in Maine?
The ice disc in Westbrook, Maine, formed from the churning water current created by Saccarappa Falls, located 100 feet away.
This caused it to slowly spin counterclockwise.
The current then broke off bits of the ice and rounded the plate as it spun.