Nature and man combine to create stunning ‘ice mushrooms’ in Amur region

Eugene Simonov,

Nature creates billions of ice-traps and other related hazards on streams, ponds and lakes in the north-lands, every winter. We find frozen mammoths and lions in the old permafrost muck, because nature itself created the traps that killed - and preserved - them.

Siberia is a very, very large place. It can afford to lose some smidgen of land-area to hydroelectric reservoirs. Electricity is important, vital, and there is no smoke from hydro. It's renewable.

Furthermore, migratory birds are helped by additional water-bodies, in areas that lack them, and some do. Water-life is important to the ecology, and created lakes serve in this habitat-role too.
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Dramatic fall of water-level on streams and water-bodies in the far North, is the normal & typical pattern. The annual northern water-cycle begins with break-up & spring-melt, which typically causes flooding. These floods replenish water-bodies both natural and man-made.

During the short summer, northern regions often receive a disproportionate share of their annual precipitation, augmenting the melt-waters.

Then come fall, and on through the long winter, any precipitation is frozen and locked in-place on the ground. Surface-waters of all kinds are frozen, and cease to contribute to stream-flow and lake-levels. Perched-ice and air-holes are ubiquitous ... and dangerous. Depleted winter water inventories are an important fact of natural life, in the North.

You err on two counts, Eugene. Meeting the valid needs of humans does not cause as-much nor as-unique damage as suggested - nor are the effects all bad! But somewhat more of a 'sin', is attempting to depict nature as without hazard and destruction, itself. In Hollywood, Walt Disney flicks, ok ... but in serious people, this is a short-coming.

Please reconsider the condemnation. You could not participate in this forum, without electricity. Siberians need it too, and this reservoir is a balance of positive and negative effects ... which we also observe in untouched nature.

Thank you!

Ted

What are you so happy about?
These "mushrooms" are grown on the dry trunks of dead trees of a forest submerged and killed by hydropower reservoir.
This phenomenon of water lowering while reservoir is frozen creates ice traps in which deer and other wildlife falls in and dies.
From my perspective celebrating this as artwork shows complete lack of awareness what you actually see. It is like trying to discern unusual beauty in frozen corpses...

That's a trip alright! Good score on the pics, nice collection.

It's breaking off the snags and clearing them out sooner than it would take otherwise. Underwater parts and stumps can last a long time submerged.

Don't get underneath them ... or drive your boat fast when there's nothing above-water anymore.