[meteorite-list] Holes in ice
Darren Garrison
cynapse at charter.net
Thu Mar 1 10:14:38 EST 2007
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/COLUMNISTS03/202280381/-1/columnists
Do holes in ice create holes in space theory?
Published: Wednesday, February 28, 2007
In January 2001, Susan Taylor, a research scientist at the Army Corps of
Engineers Cold Regions Research Laboratory in Hanover, visited Frost Pond in
Dublin to investigate a mysterious hole in the ice.
Local residents asked her to come because her work on snowpack research includes
going to the South Pole to collect micro-meteorites and they wondered whether
the 3-foot-wide gap had been caused by incoming space debris.
Her verdict, at the time, as I reported it: Maybe.
Her verdict now, as I found when checking in again: Maybe not.
Since then . . . Ive heard of many more of these (mysterious holes in frozen
ponds), Taylor said in a phone interview last week. I think its some natural
phenomenon, but I have no idea how theyre formed.
Frequency casts doubt on the meteorite theory, Taylor said, because not many
softball-size rocks make it through the atmosphere without burning up.
You may wonder why Im bringing up a 5-year-old story.
Because another of those mysterious holes appeared Sunday, Feb. 18, in a small
pond on Curtis Brook Road in Wilton.
Its very curious indeed there just arent any tracks around it, said Nikki
Andrews, who with her husband, David, have owned the property for nine years.
By the time they spotted the foot-wide hole it had begun to freeze over, but as
you can see from the photo taken by a neighbor, it was still plainly visible.
Also visible were the lack of animal and human footprints nearby no beaver or
ice-fishing fan made this hole as well as odd splash marks that stretch out
in several directions.
Andrews said the splash marks made slight furrows in the snow, leading them to
guess that something had crashed through the ice from above.
Theyre definitely on top, and thats what really surprised me, she said.
I got all excited about meteorite possibilities when the Andrewses first
contacted Telegraph correspondent Jessie Salisbury, who contacted me, until
Taylor squelched that idea.
A little Net searching found similar stories about mystery ice holes here and
there, occasionally with real meteorites confirmed but mostly full of uninformed
speculation (which is what we reporters do best).
I couldnt figure out who else would have expertise: hydrologists?
meteorologists? New Hampshire Fish & Game? The New Hampshire Mutual UFO Network
(maybe space aliens are abducting brook trout)?
I finally fell back on the non-Internet worlds version of Web searching
flipping randomly through my Rolodex and wound up talking with Wayne Ives of
the state Department of Environmental Services Instream Flow Program.
Ives has spent years splashing around the Souhegan and Lamprey rivers as part of
a project to set standards on river usage, which is how I met him, so he knows
New Hampshire waters in winter. He was intrigued and puzzled, so I e-mailed him
a copy of the Andrewses photo.
Thats when (pun alert) he threw cold water on my meteorite hopes: That looks
to me like a melt hole, he said.
As Ives explained it, above-freezing water flowing into a small pond can move in
funny ways and congregate, raising the surface temperature enough to melt ice.
Evidence in favor of this idea is the small size of the pond, which was man-made
a couple of decades ago, and the fact that some of its banks are steep.
I have seen it on small lakes especially where the banks are high around it
to get a good gradient from the shore the possibility of a lot of groundwater
coming in. In a shallow environment like that, it could overwhelm the system,
he said.
Our weird winter contributes to the possibility, said Dr. Stephen Daly of the
Cold Regions lab.
It was incredibly warm right up through the second week of January, with a lot
of rain, so I think the groundwater levels got really, really high for winter .
. .. An upwelling of groundwater could do this, he said. The water table
around the pond might be higher than the water surface on the pond.
This doesnt explain splash marks, however. Heres all I can think of: theyre
actually signs of more melting from below. The warmer water could have oozed
along cracks under the ice, partially melting the snow above those cracks from
underneath in a way that looks like they were melted from above.
The Andrewses allowed a neighbor to bore a few auger holes in the ice and poke
around in the mud at the bottom (five feet down) with a stick. Alas, no
meteorite was found, but I havent given up hope.
The neighbor measured the ice at the hole and found it to be 6 inches thick,
which seems a lot to be melted.
I think more investigation in needed. I wonder if The Telegraph will let me rent
a miniature submarine?
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