Thursday, January 14, 2010

Stress Fractures

Thanks for all of the ID help yesterday on that hawk.

I am going with Coopers, which was my original opinion too.

If you came here thinking I broke a bone, I apologize.

(not apologizing for the lack of broken bones, just the deceptive title)

I've never broken a bone (Drink your American milk!) ... unless having part of your finger sheared off counts as a break ... seems more like cutting bone than breaking ... anyway, it's back on so no biggie.

The stress fractures on exhibit today are the kind found in shifting ice.

Now bear in mind, this is Florida ice, so you Yanks can stop laughing at it's thickness. You Floridians can gasp along in amazement with me.

Before I explain what's about to happen in the video, let me just say that the ice yesterday was record breaking in it's thicknomagnificentness!

My koi pond had ice over an inch thick!

Heck yeah, I know I mentioned this in the comments yesterday, but DANG!

This is Florida and FC has been here since 3:00 am one cold night in 1958. I've seen multiple Florida snow events since then, but never the consistently freezing temps to produce PACK ICE.

We are all in awe this winter.

Okay, back to the video.

You went ahead and watched it already didn't you?

Fess up.

That's okay. The tank in the video is an aquaculture tank I installed in the 90's to grow tilapia. It has a bottom drain in it that is activated by a simple knife valve outside of the tank. Last week, just on a whim, I opened the drain.

When the ice began to groan and complain, I thought, "VIDEO!"

I had to shorten it a bit, but if you have a minute or two to watch ice relieving it's stress, then sit back and enjoy.

17 comments:

cinbad122 said...

Whoa-oa!! LOL And I didn't watch and then read! :)

Pablo said...

When my lake does that, it booms.

Dani said...

THAT WAS COOL!!!!!!!!

debbie said...

I've never seen anything like that before. Fascinating.

Anonymous said...

FC-
Way Cool! No pun intended, just be prepared for the remarks from that Geek I married!
Lightnin

h said...

Interesting. An INCH thick. Wow! Would that support Bear? If so, a Bear slip-sliding-away video might be in order. Odds are, he'll never get to "skate" again.

threecollie said...

Can we say envy here. I spent about an hour last week trying...and failing...to chop through the ice on my garden pond so I could put the venting heater in. At eight inches I could clearly see that it wasn't happenin'
My ice would hold up a real bear....even if it was driving a tractor. lol

nfmgirl said...

Very cool! Hope you don't mind: I had to share this one with my Facebook friends and family!

R.Powers said...

Cindy,
Good girl. Pretty cool huh?

Pablo,
Are you from Texas?

Dani,
WAAAAAAAY SO!

Debbie,
Me neither and I didn't expect to here in FL either!

Lightnin,
Even now he is fantically googling for some kind of ice trivia.

Troll,
Excellent idea! I could hardly break it. Shoulda took a pic!!


3C,
8 inches! My koi would be very cramped in this small pond.


Nfmgirl,
Sure! Go ahead and spread the stress relief!
:)

Sayre said...

We used a long pole to break up ours! I like yours better though. The SOUNDS are amazing!

Sandcastle Momma said...

That video is so cool! I've been complaining a lot about the cold but your video proves that there is always something amazing to see here in paradise. Let's just hope we don't see any more of it LOL

Thunder said...

No geeky remarks this time, but FC you really do need to get up to Pablo's neck of the woods and check out the sounds that he's talking about! Truman lake or Lake of the Ozarks either one are awesome to see, and hear, this time of year!

SophieMae said...

DUDE! That was totally cool! Radicool! OK, I've seen/heard/felt enough. Let's move as quickly as possible back to the 60's, k?

LOL! My ver. word today is wordino! Honest!

SophieMae said...

Oh, and PS... I read the whole post before watching the veejo. Do I get a brownie button or what? 8-}

(Word this time: forestmi.
...so easily amused)

lisa said...

That was pretty cool! I can't believe you had ice!

Caroline said...

Ice skating on Lake Champlain, ice about 3' thick, it would relieve its "stress" with massive booms. It would scare the liver out of us kids, we were sure a fissure would open between us and the shore and we were going to drown. Didn't keep us off the lake, no one ever fell in, but it sure was one of those scary/fun thrills like a carnival ride.

Ericka said...

that was REALLY cool! pack ice? maybe not so much.

the last time i heard sounds like that, i did not watch it. i grabbed my idiot brother and headed for shore, post-haste. happily, neither one of us drowned, or froze.

wv: chtter - the sound your teeth really make in the cold.