Weather Words: Ice Bubbles

The winter season brings some of the neatest natural wonders, and ice bubbles is definitely one of those. Ice bubbles are pockets of gas, often methane or air, that become trapped in frozen lakes as temperatures plunge.

As the ice forms from the top down, gases rising from the lakebed or released from decaying organic material get caught layer by layer, creating stacks of perfectly round, milky-white discs suspended in the clear ice.

In many northern lakes, microbes break down leaves, plants, and other natural material at the bottom, releasing methane. In summer, that methane escapes into the air. However, in winter, when the surface freezes, the gas becomes trapped as bubbles. When the ice thickens over time, more bubbles stack on top of each other, producing those dramatic, layered formations photographers love.

Jennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.