These pictures were taken January 25th. I wanted to go back to the river to see what the ice looked like. It had continued to be cold and I expected the ice might be thicker than it was the first time I saw it in Harrisburg. I first approached the river at a park in Middletown and was surprised at the amount of ice in the river. The closer it got to Three Mile Island on the upriver side, the thicker the ice got until it spanned the entire river. It truly looked "otherworldly."
The ice forms upstream on the calmer, slower water in great, flat blocks. As the ice is obstructed around Three Mile Island, the ice slows while the river flows and ice blocks after ice blocks smash into each other. The collisions cause the blocks to tilt so the corners protrude into the air. It's quite a show as the low winter light glistens through the semi-translucent corners. Thousands of glowing triangles, much bigger than they look.
At a slight turn in the river, the ice blocks find refuge from the crushing pressure on the shore. A man who had lived in the area for 70 years told me that the ice piles get 7 feet high. Today they were only about 3 feet. Although a picture tells a thousand words, these pictures can never tell the sounds of the river with huge ice flow. The river is deceptively fast and the ice exceptionally heavy. The result is high speed, high momentum collisions which make an indescribable, low but loud noise. It's eerie. A constant reminder that one false move into the river would certainly be a death sentence. Beautiful but dangerous - yin and yang all over again.
I lingered until the sun set hoping it might create a colorful ending. It did not disappoint.
These pictures were taken January 25th. I wanted to go back to the river to see what the ice looked like. It had continued to be cold and I expected the ice might be thicker than it was the first time I saw it in Harrisburg. I first approached the river at a park in Middletown and was surprised at the amount of ice in the river. The closer it got to Three Mile Island on the upriver side, the thicker the ice got until it spanned the entire river. It truly looked "otherworldly."
The ice forms upstream on the calmer, slower water in great, flat blocks. As the ice is obstructed around Three Mile Island, the ice slows while the river flows and ice blocks after ice blocks smash into each other. The collisions cause the blocks to tilt so the corners protrude into the air. It's quite a show as the low winter light glistens through the semi-translucent corners. Thousands of glowing triangles, much bigger than they look.
At a slight turn in the river, the ice blocks find refuge from the crushing pressure on the shore. A man who had lived in the area for 70 years told me that the ice piles get 7 feet high. Today they were only about 3 feet. Although a picture tells a thousand words, these pictures can never tell the sounds of the river with huge ice flow. The river is deceptively fast and the ice exceptionally heavy. The result is high speed, high momentum collisions which make an indescribable, low but loud noise. It's eerie. A constant reminder that one false move into the river would certainly be a death sentence. Beautiful but dangerous - yin and yang all over again.
I lingered until the sun set hoping it might create a colorful ending. It did not disappoint.
No comments:
Post a Comment