An amateur photographer has captured amazing ‘pancake ice’ formations normally only seen in the Arctic or Baltic Sea.
Dan McLeod, 49, snapped the images of the ice which had frozen in a flat, round shape while he was out for a drive.
He spotted the unusual shapes floating on the River Helmsdale, near Helmsdale Strath, Sutherland, earlier this week.
Dan, who works as a barman, said: “I was visiting friends when I saw the formations on the river. I jumped out of the car and it wasn’t until I got closer that I realised what they were.
“I photographed them as I have not seen anything like it before in my life. It was fascinating — just completely different.”
Pancake ice is a form of ice that consists of round pieces of ice with diameters ranging from 12in to 9.8ft, depending on the local conditions that affect ice formation.
The elevated rims are formed by piling the slush up the edges of pancakes when they collide, both due to random bumping into each other and because of periodic compressions at wave troughs.
These rims are the first indication of the onset of the formation of the pancake ice from less consolidated forms of ice.
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