Melting Lake Ice Sounds Like Alien Arcade

Occurred on March 7, 2025 / Montana, USA

Info from Licensor: "I live on Bull Lake in NW Montana. I'm a photographer and graphic designer so I'm always with a camera or my phone to capture whatever natural event or oddity I can...Moose, elk, auroras, eagles and whatever NEATure has to offer in this beautiful, rugged and remote environment I'm lucky enough to call home.

Regionally, we had a drastic temperature change in the last few weeks of February into March, where we had 18 inches of snow on the ground and 10-12 inches of ice on the lake. This was followed by a week of rain and temps in the 50's and low 60's (which up here is unseasonable...and we call this a false spring).

On March 7, 2025 around 8:30am, I was lucky enough to have witnessed this phenomenon called 'ice singing' or (scientifically know as) Acoustic Dispersion.

I woke up that morning and headed out to the deck to grab some firewood for the stove only to be greeted by this amazing battle of what sounded like a 'Starwars~esque meets classic 80's arcade game' wall of sound, erupting on the lake. I briefly thought something had crashed on the other side of the lake, I was wrong.

My layman's definition of Acoustic Dispersion is when sound waves echo through the ice as it expands, contracts and buckles from the varying temperatures of the water, air (sunlight) and melting ice. The lower frequencies, and in this case the higher frequencies, are separated which led to this unreal Starwars soundtrack as it travels under and through the ice as the thick ice melts. I've heard the lower frequency events of Acoustic Dispersion but in my years having moved back to Montana, I've not heard anything like this!

This epic acoustic phenomenon less than 1.5 hour and the valley returned to silence. The next day the ice had melted into smaller, fractured ice sheets and receded to the other side of the lake. Spring has sprung here as the false spring keeps its grip up here in Montana so this likely won't have a chance to happen again until next year.

Enjoy!"