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Wednesday 14 January 2009

Walker discovers 10ft-wide, spinning frozen arctic circle in British waters for the first time

Source: Daily Mail

This disc of ice, which measures 10ft across, was spotted in Devon during last week's freeze, swirling on the River Otter near Honiton. Ice circles are known to appear in the Arctic, Scandinavia and Canada, but this is thought to be the first seen in Britain. They occur at bends in the river where the accelerating water creates a force called 'rotational shear', which breaks off a chunk of ice and twists it around. As the disc rotates, it grinds against surrounding ice - smoothing into a perfect circle.