It's a fact of life that all human beings have to accept at some point during their time here that they will never win over nature, and that we will always be trying to push against it as well. One of the most difficult aspects of nature to deal with is how cold it can often get, and along with the cold sometimes we get ice. We wanted to put together a list that showed everyone just how much ice can mess with things!
What we've done is pull together some truly amazing images, pictures that show everyone just what a cold snap can do to the world. Once the ice sets in, people will get to witness some truly fascinating things, and once it has melted away, it can reveal many other things that we imagine most people never thought they would see.
So, we want to get started so that everyone can take a look. It's always good to remind ourselves of how destructive and yet beautiful nature can be, whether or not we like to accept that fact. Well then, let's get started!
20 Spider web - An ice hotel for arachnids
We understand that a lot of people are scared of spiders, but is there anyone out there that can say that this wonderful frosted spider web isn't one of the most beautiful sights in the world? Who knew that something so small, the sort of thing that we just brush away on a daily basis, could look like this with just a bit of cold weather?! It makes us think that we won't be brushing away any spiderwebs we find this winter!
19 Frog - walking on water
The most fantastic thing about this image is the ice crystals that are sprouting from the side of this frog's body.
It may seem a little sad, but we like to think that this guy is just one of those animals that can be frozen before thawing out during the warmer months and coming back to life!
Even if this isn't true, we're glad that someone was able to catch this on their camera so that all of us can see the beauty in the sadness of nature.
18 Lighthouse - frozen in time
The thing about lighthouses is that they're somewhat archaic, something that we don't really need as much as we used to. What we do with things we don't use is just let them rot and decay, which is why we ended up with this! Honestly, there's no lighthouse out there left unfrozen that is anywhere near as beautiful as this, so we're glad that this lighthouse was left to the elements, as it became something much more wonderful to us!
17 Minneapolis Falls - walk through the falls
If you had asked us how many places in the world have a waterfall that people can walk through, we wouldn't have guessed that it was more than one or two if we're honest.
Honestly, now that we've written this list, we can't wait to throw this onto our bucket list!
Who wouldn't want to take a walk underneath a waterfall? It's a chance to see something in a way that very few others have seen it before!
16 Geyser - there she blows?
This is such an amazing picture that we can't believe that this thing wasn't actually created by a human being.
This is what happens when two areas of nature come together to create something better than the sum of their parts, not that it is doing it on purpose!
Just like with other entries on this list, we'll never understand how something that is moving can end up freezing into place like this.
15 Frozen Volcano - Seems a bit contradictory
When we think about volcanoes, we arguably think about lava, molten liquid that seems to ruin everything that gets in the way, but apparently that's not entirely true!
By the looks of things, lava can end up being frozen, presumably by extreme temperatures?!
Honestly, we don't need to know why this has ended up like this, we just want to look at it all day. We would have this thing on our bedroom wall to be honest!
14 Flash Flood - frozen in motion
The fact that this place was so cold that it was able to stop rushing water means that we would never want to set foot in this place for the rest of our lives. By its very nature, a flash flood is a rush of water that stops for nothing, taking down everything in its way, but a sharp frost was able to stop it! We can only imagine that sliding down this magnificent piece of nature was a lot of fun. Somebody better have done that!
13 Mining Truck - needs a bit of a warm up
We can only assume that what happened here was a sudden frost hit a building site, which left this mining truck covered in frost and snow.
While it's definitely a stunning sight, we can only think about the poor workers who turned up to the site one day to find that they were unable to do what they needed that day because the frost had set in big time!
Sure, they got a good photograph out of it, but they missed at least a day of work.
12 Abiqua Falls - is it still a waterfall, if the water doesn't fall?
According to OutdoorProject, this waterfall is "arguably one of Oregon's most spectacular waterfalls."
Unlike a lot of waterfalls, that get their majesty from being a huge body of cascading water, this waterfall really comes into its own when it ends up frozen all over!
This allows people to walk around and within the waterfall at certain times of the year, offering a chance to take part in something that pretty much nobody else has ever done.
11 Stop Sign - Stopped in time
Can anybody be blamed for not knowing that this is a stop sign? We can only guess that the frost on this sign has put a couple of people in danger throughout the years.
Regardless though, we love the way that this thing looks.
It's almost as if someone has purposefully thrown icicles at this thing in an attempt to see if they'll stick, and we're glad to see that they did!
10 Shipwreck - Frozen underwater
When tragedy happens, or the unforeseen sets in, we will often leave behind what is broken, which can explain why this shipwreck ended up frozen underwater.
While it's sad to think about how this could've happened, it's fascinating to think about how it could!
Not only that, but it is genuinely fascinating to look at. We would like to think that we would be able to walk on the ice until we were right over this thing!
9 Tractor - no work is getting done here
We can only hope that this thing had been left behind at some point, and that's why it has ended up looking like this, because it's clearly not usable anymore.
What we're saying is, if somebody needed this to do their work, they wouldn't be doing much work this day!
We're glad that we happen to have a job where we don't ever have to wait for things to thaw to make some money.
8 One Fish Eating Another - it's a fish eat fish world
It's a worrying world out there, one where animals will take out each other if they have to in order to survive, which can be seen in this image!
How the ice was able to catch these two in such a position we will never truly know, but it doesn't mean we can't enjoy it right now.
Yes, what you're looking at is a fish eating another fish, the two of them stuck within ice that has hit the top of the lake that they lived in.
7 32,000 Year Old Seeds - Imagine what we can learn once they melt
One of the things that worries people about climate change is that, as the ice around the world thaws, things that have laid dormant for years may end up coming back!
However, while this is worrying when it comes to viruses and bacteria, it could be fascinating when it comes to seeds.
Imagine if we could get ahold of plants that we thought were extinct, as the ice around the seeds melts away!
6 Genuine Treasure - Frozen treasures from the Alps
We know it sounds like something out of a big budget movie, but NBCNews wrote a story in 2015 about a cache of jewels that was found in a plane wreck in the Alps, likely lost there for decades!
"About a hundred small, precious stones were found in a metallic box in the ice caps known as the Bossons."
Imagine trekking up the Alps and finding some genuine frozen treasure!
5 Methane - little frozen bubbles
What you're looking at here, is a bunch of methane bubbles that have become trapped underneath a thick layer of ice. The way that the methane gets to the surface is to bubble up through the water, but when the cold temperatures hit, it changes everything! These bubbles don't disappear in the harsh weather, instead forming these odd and beautiful images that you can see above, meaning what we're technically looking at here is frozen gas.
4 A Bubble - looks more like a magic crystal ball
This frozen bubbles give us an idea of how it may look at a microscopic level, made up of numerous little bits rather than just one solid sphere!
Bubbles are pretty magical when they're not frozen, which is why children go crazy for them.
Images like this allow adults to get in on the fun, showing that there's a real majesty underneath everything in this world.
3 Chicago River - sometimes it's green, sometimes it's frozen
When the big chill hit the US, it caused many scenes that people struggled to believe, even as they looked at them with their own eyes.
What we see here is the Chicago river frozen over, which the Mirror described as, "cities such as Chicago and Boston have seen rivers become frozen as the worse arctic winds in 80 years solidified anything in their path."
Amazing to think that the weather can still take us by surprise!
2 Horse Statue - It's not like it was going anywhere anyway
We hope that we're not upsetting the person who made this statue when we say that it looks better with frost hanging from it.
It's amazing to think that somebody can spend hours on designing and creating something like this, setting it up in public, only for ice to make it look even better!
Imaging waking up and seeing a statue outside of where you live looking like this.
1 Iron Age Tunic - Not keeping anyone warm
One of the great things about ice slowly melting away, and human beings deciding to take a look at what is under our feet, is that we can end up coming across some pretty amazing things. We'll admit right now this isn't the most spectacular image in this list, but there is something fascinating about the fact that ice has managed to preserve something for a different time to ours, giving us a look at how human beings used to live!
Sources: Grunge; EarthPorm