VIDEO: Ice Volcanoes Erupt in Green Bay, Wisconsin

By Mark Leberfinger, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

December 15,2014; 8:45PM,EST

 

 

 

It's that time of year again for a phenomenon to form on the Great Lakes of the United States: ice volcanoes.
They look like their larger counterparts but they don't spew lava or poisonous gases. Water erupts from them.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources shared the video below of ice volcanoes along the shoreline of Green Bay on Dec. 2,2014.
AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Steve D. Travis has seen ice volcanoes up close on Lake Erie.
"During the winter months, ice forms on the Great Lakes and is pushed onto the shore. Sometimes, lake water will flow under the ice, and come up through cracks or holes near the shoreline. This water then freezes once it surfaces, and if it continues over an extended period of time it can gradually build into a cone shape, resembling a small volcano," Travis said.
These ice volcanoes will continue to grow taller as the water rushes up from underneath the frozen surface, Travis said.
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"Prime locations for viewing these ice volcanoes are along the eastern shores of lakes Erie and Ontario, where they occur almost every year, especially in January and early February," he said, adding that they can form all around the Great Lakes, where waves pound the shoreline.
More than 92 percent of the Great Lakes were covered by ice during the 2013-2014 season, the second greatest Great Lakes ice cover on record, the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory said.
As of Saturday,Dec. 13,2014, only 1.4 percent of the lakes were covered by ice.

Facebook fan Rick Desrochers took this photo of an ice volcano in Michigan (Photo/Northern Dreams Photography).

Facebook fan Trisha Spettel spotted this ice volcano at Sheboygan, Wisconsin.