Lake Erie Ice Facts and Info 2

[West Basin]

One poster wondered how ice could get 30' down to the bottom and plow furrows or trenches into the bottom.

There are numerous factors that impact the movement of ice on Lake Erie. The two biggest are wind direction, speed, and duration and current speed, direction, and duration.

Old timers around the Lake (and I've seen photos to back them up) will tell you they've seen ice piled up along the shoreline hundreds of feet inland and 30-40 feet high. The roads along the shore from Port Clinton to Sandusky have been blocked many times by such ice.

There are times (events) when wind and/or current create conditions that force one ice sheet to slide under another (ice sheet subduction at pressure ridges). With sufficiant force and time, these subductions can force ice down a long way. In the shallower Western Basin, these ice "plows" are responsible for yearly alterations in the bottom topography, scouring trenches in soft bottom and moving rocks and bolders around on harder bottoms. If you've ever been out fishing in the spring or early summer and swear that bolder moved from last year, or the depth has changed in a framilier fishing spot, it's a good bet ice had something to do with it.

Like a glacier, it's even possible for ice to pick up objects off the bottom, hold them in suspention in the ice, and then deposit them miles from where they were picked up. Rare, but it happens.

Next time: Big algea blooms in winter? Does it effect fishing?