THE sun glints off this rare display of “ice eggs” spread along 30 metres of Finland’s Marjaniemi beach on Hailuoto Island. This is so-called “ice eggs” have covered the beach on Hailuoto Island between Finland and Sweden. Experts reportedly say this happens when small pieces of ice are rolled over by wind and water.

How It Made

The “ice eggs” littered an area the length of about one-quarter of a football field and ranged in size from that of an average chicken egg to that of a hefty soccer ball, Mattila said, a famous photographer. The ice balls range from the size of an egg to a football. People flocked to the area, hoping to catch a glimpse before they melted. These ice eggs form similarly to sea glass or rounded stones that wash up on the beach, said BBC Weather expert George Goodfellow.

Chunks of ice break off from larger ice sheets in the sea and either taxi to shore on the incoming tide or get pushed in by gusts of wind at the water’s surface, he explained. Waves buffet the ice chunks as they travel, slowly eroding their jagged edges into smooth curves. Seawater sticks and freezes to the forming eggs, causing them to grow like snowballs do as they roll across the ground.

Once the ice chunks reach shore, pounding waves tend to buff out any lingering kinks on their surfaces, leaving behind nothing but sleek and shiny “eggs” for curious tourists to happen upon. They can grow when sea water freezes on to their surfaces and this also helps to make them smoother. So the result is a ball of smooth ice which can then get deposited on to a beach, either blown there or getting left there when the tide goes out