06 Feb 2009

Photographs of strange alien "iceballs" in Victoria Park

Author:

Simon Bainbridge

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I got this email from Martin John Callanan this morning. Can anyone explain this extraordinary icy phenomenon?


Here is some important news I must share with you.

Late last night I began hearing reports of strange icy objects in a part of east London (UK) commonly referred to as Victoria Park. It was too dark to investigate and the park was locked until this morning. At dawn I set out to investigate, having only just returned to my office, this is the first email I write. What I discovered was so strange and unusual the first step was to upload the documentation to my website and contact you as a matter of urgency.

Within what appeared to be a rather contained area of roughly 200 acres coinciding remarkably with the boundary of Victoria Park, I found and recorded more than 300 occurrences of what I refer to as “ice balls”. These are roughly spherical objects ranging from ~30cm to more than ~150cm diameter. For now, until more information becomes available to me, I must surmise these “ice balls” are similar in origin to hail. Perhaps this exaggerated scale is the latest phenomenon associated to our rapidly changing climate.

Martin has posted his documentation online.

(Note than martin is currently Artist in Residence at UCL Environmental Institute.)

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Comments

I think they are UFO's - Unidentified Frozen Objects?

Posted by: john hodgett on 06 Feb 2009 at 12:14

How about feces from alien ice giants?

Posted by: Eolake Stobblehouse on 07 Feb 2009 at 23:28

Anything "alien" would've melted while falling from space, burst in the atmosphere from air friction, or shattered on impact. Even space rocks seldom make it to the ground, and preciuos little of them remains.

I think, given their soil-smeared aspect, they've probably been made by the wind rolling an original nucleus/object on the ground, creating low density snowballs.

Just my amateurish hypothesis, I'm no meteorologist.

Definitely an unusual phenomenon anyway. Must've been some pretty strong whirling winds, and probably lasting ones to roll some of the biggest balls.

Posted by: Pascal [P-04referent] on 08 Feb 2009 at 03:42

Either I am missing the Joke here, or people in London really do not understand what happens when kids and snow mix.

With in hours of any snowfall here in Canada, kids start rolling Snowballs, normally for use in building Snowmen and Women, but often just for fun.

The dirt gets picked up if the person who is rolling the snowball rolls back over a spot where all the snow has already been picked-up during rolling. Also, if the snowball becomes too heavy will pick up such a deep layer of snow, that it goes right down to the dirt.

Posted by: Rory on 11 Feb 2009 at 02:48

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