Lake Ice Hole Mystery (Minnesota; 2003)

[rynner2]

From a Minnesota webpage: (with pic.)
Link is long dead. No archived version found. MIA article seems to be quoted in full below.

Mystery hole in North Long Lake: Thermal images, divers used to explore two acre spot of open water

By Peter Frank
[email protected]

Six people found themselves in ice cold water on the west bay of North Long Lake late last winter after chancing on a large area of open water. It killed one of them, Ronald Piekarski, on March 1.

As ice fishermen set up their houses and snowmobilers make trips across the lake this winter, that fatal spot of open water in the midst of an otherwise solid ice sheet is back. It has members of the Long Lake Association and the Thirty Lakes Watershed District worried and searching for an explanation.

The search hasn’t turned up any answers, said Allan Cibuzar, president of A.W. Research. His firm is working with the Thirty Lakes Watershed District to collect data on the nearly two acre gash in the ice sheet.

He showed results of a thermal imaging camera overflight flown on December 24 to Thirty Lakes Watershed District workers and members of the Long Lake Association December 26.

The hole, over 1,300 feet long and 500 feet wide, glowed white around the edges, showing the presence of warm water. Along the sides of the still intact ice sheet were signs of eddying currents further weakening the remaining ice.

“It’s growing,” said Cibuzar.

After the hole’s appearance last year, Cibuzar placed sensors on the lake bottom to record temperature and chemical levels in the water. The results of those tests didn’t show anything conclusive.

Those sensors and an underwater camera will be going back in the water this year, with the help of divers Todd and Bill Matthews from the Minnesota School of Diving. While they are on the bottom sometime this week, they plan to use dye to check for currents and take temperature readings. The divers will also give the whole area a thorough going over in an effort to find any clues to the open water on the bottom.

The two divers are just as puzzled by the open water as anyone else. Todd, who has been under water on that spot of North Long Lake already this winter, said he didn’t experience anything abnormal.

“It didn’t seem warm to me…usually I feel it on my face,” he said. At least one rumor that is being passed around claims that water temperatures in that area of the lake are around 60 degrees.

Todd also doubted a rumor that there was a trench on the bottom. In that area of the lake, he said, the bottom is silty and flat.

“I don’t know of any volcanos we’re sitting on,” said Bill, only half joking. “In 44 years of this [diving], I haven’t seen anything like this,” he added.

He had a hard time believing that the open water had a natural explanation. The water is about 16 feet deep in the area of the hole, and as part of a shallow bay, it should freeze quickly and remain frozen. Long Lake, which is 97 feet deep at its deepest point, is only 20 feet deep at its deepest points in the bay.

According to Bill, lakes begin to freeze after the temperature throughout the entire body of water reaches 39 degrees. Until that happens, the water simply turns over, with the water that is 39 degrees moving to the bottom of the lake and warmer water rising to the top. Once the water reaches a uniform 39 degree temperature, it can become successively cooler without turning over and eventually freeze.

Cibuzar didn’t rule out some type of natural volcanic activity. However, he noted that his sensors didn’t pick up any sulphates in the water. Somewhere, he said, there has to be a big chunk of energy, either in the form of heat, or water movement regularly coming into the lake at the area of the hole in the ice.

Tom Ebnet, manager of the Thirty Lakes Watershed District, said he was surprised that so far no one but the lake association and his organization has invested time in trying to understand what is going on.

“Nobody seems to care to check it out,” he said.

For the lake association, the main concern is safety, said Chuck Bartells, president. Ideally, there would be a fence around the hole or some other way to alert winter anglers and recreationists of the danger. However, he’s not sure who would install and maintain a fence.

“It freezes and thaws. It moves so much,” he said.

The Crow Wing County Sheriff’s department has the authority to mark hazards on water bodies; however, said Bartells, they have been reluctant to fence the opening. Signs have been installed, warning of thin ice at entrances to the lake, said Sergeant Neal Gaalswyk.

 

[Anonymous]

Could thermal venting be a possible cause?

What about a shifting current from one of the warmer regions of the sea?

I dont mean a current as powerful as the Gulf Stream but perhaps there is some underlying geography that has allowed freak currents to occasionaly move through this area. It may only happen once or twice a day....like the tide.

Is there any forms of gases that could have been released from under the silt that could melt the ice or temporarily change the temperature of the water?

Could there be something in the ice?

 

[Anonymous]

Volcanos, by definition, are phenomena that appear from ground that previously was devoid of activity. It may be a new volcano!

What about solar radiation?

...or maybe someone just needed a rather large pish........

Was there any yellow round the edges?

 

[TVgeek]

Actually, we're talking about one freshwater lake in a
state with about 11,000 lakes of various sizes. No thermal
vents or volcanic activity in about 10,000 years. In fact,
most of the land mass is still RISING now that it is relieved
of the weight of the glaciers from the last ice age. Really.

My guess is that someone who owns lakeshore property
emptied some waste product -- non-drinkable alcohol or
battery acid or something -- into the lake last fall, and
the hole is the "manifestation" of their deed. I've heard
of this type of thing happening before, unfortunately.
That being said: this is one massive hole in the ice!

We are having an extremely mild winter here in Minnesota,
and the local Dept. of Natural Resources people
keep repeating: "Stay off the ice." Its in the media daily.
Of course, all the rabid ice-fisherfolk and snowmobilers
feel that it doesn't apply to them.
This has lead to daily fatalities.

My only thought is "whom do they sue"?

TVgeek

 

[rynner2]

More on Ice Hole investigation (with pics) - but no answers yet.

Link is dead. The MIA webpage (news article) can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20030110110547/http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3580299.html

 

[Anonymous]

Volcanos, by definition, are phenomena that appear from ground that previously was devoid of activity. It may be a new volcano!

Where did you get that definition? Im a student of geology and I cant say Ive ever heard it.

 

[Anonymous]

yeah, ok.

I should not have used the word "definition" and I should have included the word "can" or "may" when speaking of their origins.

The "by definition" was a figure of speech but is very much the wrong one to have used.

Volcanos as you will know are generaly effected by the actions of tectonic plates but this is rapidly becoming a mere convention whose barriers are being broken as we speak. The current theory is that they should only appear over subduction systems which are those areas where one tectonic plate roles over another. Many volcanoes do not conform to that set of rules. There are quite a few volcanoes whose position is well away from the tectonic gaps and their violence can be delivered in a way that seems remote but is still caused the subduction areas elsewhere.

There is still much research to be done in the field of plate tectonics but we have recently been studying the magma "back-arc" basins and slab rollback of Etna. These basins can send magma sideways and away from the main cores. These phenomena can occur very quickly and unexpectedly.

Volcanic land does not "by law" have to have always been volcanic and nor does it have to stay in such a state. We ourselves live near an area of previous activity and we are still near the tectonic edges so one should not assume that this country may never become active again.

I am a student of geology too!

 

[Anonymous]

LOL okies, at last I caught you out

Hmm can someone point this place out on a map to me, if it's where I believe it is, then it's on an area know as a Shield Area.

Which although not totally devoided of tectonic activity, it would almost rule it out completely.

Volcanoes that tend to not conform to the rule of forming on plate margins tend to be Hot Spots or Plumes creating such wonders as Hawii among others. However something as small as this phenomena deffinatly wouldnt be a hot spot

 

[Anonymous]

That is all well and true but.......the world changes physically all the time. Sometimes it is rapid and sometimes it is slow.

I was brainstorming and I did suggest a few other equally implausible possibilities.

What have you caught me out on?

 

[Anonymous]

Your orginal deffintion of a volcano

 

[Anonymous]

Your orginal deffintion of a volcano

...but that was after I agreed that the word "definition" was a mistake and although it was used as a figure of speech....it was the wrong one to have used. Hands are up..your right!

I fail to see what it is that you have "caught" me doing though!

Was it the ability to spell "definition" properly?

I used it in the wrong place but spelled it correctly!

 

[Anonymous]

erm your confusing me now....I was merely saying I caught you out tis all nothing Sinister or anything

 

[Anonymous]

LOL okies, at last I caught you out

Hmm can someone point this place out on a map to me, if it's where I believe it is, then it's on an area know as a Shield Area

Which although not totally devoided of tectonic activity, it would almost rule it out completely. .

Hahaha...but your wrong!

So....I caught YOU out!

...But there is evidence of an ancient major fault line south of Hudson that extends toward Willow River State Park, according to studies and student observations at UW-RF.
Ian Williams, professor of geophysics at the university, said students in the department have traced the fault using gravity machines. "There is no evidence of any motion on the fault line for the last 400 million years, so we don't have to move out of the county right away," he said. "But it is similar to the New Madrid fault in Missouri, which caused one of the greatest earthquakes of the last century," he said.

The fault line near Hudson is called the Hastings fault, Williams said. "Students have traced it from about two miles south of Hudson on County Rd. F across the St. Croix River to Hastings in Minnesota. They have also traced it going north in the direction Willow River St. Park, but ran out of time to complete that study," he said.

Et Voila!

 

[rynner2]

Study of Ice Hole continues
Link is dead. No archived version found.

Nothing conclusive found yet, some more theories...

But the article ends on a nicely weird note:

Could the hole be part of an Ojibwe prophecy?

Local Ojibwe legend holds that after the natural resources of the Earth had been used up and society was nearing the last days, a hole would open near Hole-In-The-Day Lake.

Could the “black hole” be part of this prophecy?

There is no scientific data to back this theory up; however, there are some strange and eerie coincidences.

First of all, North Long Lake is within a few miles of Hole-In-The-Day Lake.

Second, the road to get to the public access nearest the “black hole” is Ojibwe Road.

Third, and perhaps most eerie, as the prophecy pertains to the depletion of natural resources, is that the only fatality of the dozen people to accidentally go into the hole was a bid estimator for a lumber company.

 

[Anonymous]

Rynner, I was fine until I read that last post of yours. Now I am officially and totally creeped out!

 

[rynner2]

More Ice Holes (Long Article.)

Link is dead. See later post for salvaged text and link to archived version.

 

[EnolaGaia]

More Ice Holes (Long Article.)
Link is dead. See later post for salvaged text and link to archived version.

Here is the text from the MIA article. An influx of groundwater was believed to be the cause of unexpectedly thin and / or ice-frees in Minnesota lakes.

Ground water suspected in 'black holes' on Long Lake, Forest Lake
Doug Smith
Star Tribune
Published Jan. 22, 2003

If aliens are responsible for the mysterious "black hole" at North Long Lake near Brainerd, then they're apparently causing mischief to other Minnesota lakes, too.

An equally puzzling triangle-shaped swath of blue water has opened on Forest Lake, just north of the Twin Cities. The lake, a popular ice fishing and snowmobiling destination, normally is frozen solid by the end of December.

And the opening, which first appeared during a warm spell earlier this month, has continued to grow, despite recent sub-zero temperatures. The phenomenon has perplexed residents, city officials and law enforcement officials. ...

"I've never seen anything like this on the lake," said Forest Lake Police Chief Dave Schwartz, who has been a policeman there for 34 years and a resident even longer. "It's bizarre." ...

At North Long Lake near Brainerd, residents have offered tongue-in-cheek reasons for the open water there -- ranging from earthquakes and aliens to meteors and lake monsters. But the opening is considered serious and dangerous, and the Watershed District has hired experts to study the situation.

Mike Mueller, a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources hydrologist, and Steve McComas of St. Paul, an aquatic specialist who owns Blue Water Science, said they think they know what is causing the problem at North Long, Forest and other lakes that have experienced unusual open water or thin ice this winter:

Ground water.

"Up here in Cambridge, Minn., we're 25 inches above normal for rainfall," said Mueller. "It's the wettest it's been in 70 years. The water tables are full. All of these lakes have interaction with the ground water."

The surplus of warmer ground water is flowing in from the lake bottoms, producing currents that are melting ice in some areas or creating thin ice in others, Mueller said.

"That's my theory," he said.

Forest Lake and North Long Lake aren't the only lakes to be affected, he said. There have been several lakes in the Cambridge and Chisago City areas with open water, Mueller said.

McComas agrees with Mueller's theory.

"We have a number of lakes with holes and openings like this," he said. "I was just out at Lake Marion in Lakeville on the same type of thing. There's open water and steam and hundreds of ducks and geese on it."

Said McComas: "It looks like it's groundwater coming up through the lake bed with enough force and velocity to erode the bottom of the ice and open it."

He said the Mississippi River flow has spiked recently. "Groundwater is on the move," Mueller said. He said an underwater TV camera at North Long Lake showed groundwater flowing in with enough force to make underwater plants wave, making it the prime suspect.

Al Cibuzar, a chemist and CEO of A.W. Research Laboratories in Brainerd, which is working on the North Long Lake puzzle, said Tuesday that an inflow of groundwater appears to be a major factor there.

"But we're still not convinced it's all [due to] groundwater. We need more data," he said. ...

FULL STORY (SALVAGED FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE):
https://web.archive.org/web/20030124111840/http://www.startribune.com/stories/531/3606120.html