ROADSIDE
58 W E S T W O R L D A L B E R T A | W I N T E R 2 0 1 5
Beauty in Bubbles
By Kevin Brooker | photo by Emmanuel Coupé Kalomiris
D
rive west on the David Thompson Highway and, just
before Banff National Park, you'll reach serpentine
Abraham Lake. It is one of Alberta's largest man-made
bodies of water and it's photogenic enough in the summer with
its trademark Rockies turquoise tint, but visitors seldom linger.
The water is cold and the winds fierce. Come frigid winter
however, the often snow-scoured expanse becomes a mecca
for ice explorers, and more specifically, nature photographers.
Ever-fluctuating water levels cause the ice to crack
dramatically and even slope up the banks, which is interesting
enough. However the stars of this show are the millions of
bubbles trapped like flies in amber. Turns out it's methane,
from both decomposing organisms and deep rock sources, a
phenomenon that occurs in other northern lakes but nowhere
quite like this. As the frozen surface deepens through February,
bubbles get trapped at successively lower levels, yielding a
telltale chain of flattened spheres that almost look like cartoon-
thought bubbles – as if the frozen, mantled Earth has a million
ideas, all of which it will forget by spring. Be careful, though.
There's danger on that ice. And whatever you do, don't try to
ignite the bubbles. They could actually explode, and this is no
time for a swim.
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