Seattle

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Photography Science

A Giant Naturally Occurring Ice Circle Appears Briefly in a Washington River

This weekend, word spread via Facebook that a large circle of ice was spinning in small river just outside of Seattle. After seeing a quick video of it in her feed, photographer Kaylyn Messer jumped in her car and was fortunate to witness the incredible sight of this gargantuan ice disc as it spun in the current of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River.

“The ice circle was pretty captivating,” Messer shared with Colossal. “You can hear the sound of the river flowing continuously. Sounds from the ice periodically interjected with very small sharp cracks and groans. Overall, it was a quiet experience to stand along the river watching the ice circle rotate.”

Ice circles are a fairly rare phenomenon that occur mostly in North America and Scandinavia in slow moving rivers during the winter. The discs are formed when a large piece of ice breaks off in the river creating an effect called ‘rotational shear’ where the current slowly grinds away at the free-floating chunk until its smoothed into a perfect circle.

Messer shares more photos and videos of the ice disc on her blog.

Design Illustration

A New Series of Water-Activated Illustrations and Games on Seattle Sidewalks Only Appear When It Rains

Famous for its notoriously rainy weather, Seattle is the perfect home for this new series of water-activated interactive artworks, illustrations, and hidden messages that only appear when wet. Titled Rainworks, the invisible pieces by Seattle-based artist Peregrine Church started popping up last year. Each installation is made from an environmentally safe, water-repellent coating that lasts anywhere from 4 months to a year. You can see more here. (via Vandalog, Metafilter)

Art

Enormous Daddy Long-Legs Overtake the Seattle Center Armory

Seattle artist and science illustrator Marlin Peterson was recently commissioned by the Washington State Artist Trust to paint a mural somewhere in the city. After searching unsuccessfully for a suitably large wall, Peterson got the idea to look for a large roof, and where would a painting on a roof be more visible than right underneath the Seattle Space Needle. An agreement was reached with the Seattle Center Armory (formerly the Center House) and he quickly began work on two daddy long-leg spiders using a technique called trompe l’oeil that creates the illusion when seen from above that gigantic arachnids are actually overtaking the building. You can see many more photos and an explanation of his process over on Peterson’s website. (via street art utopia)

Update: An earlier version of this post referred to these arthropods as spiders. While technically daddy long-legs belong to the class Arachnida, they fall into the order Opiliones, which means they aren’t spiders, they’re called harvestmen. We regret the error. (thnx, everyone)