An ice carousel is a circular piece of ice made to spin like a

carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...

within a larger body of water, often a frozen lake. It is a man-made phenomenon, made by cutting the floating ice sheet, unlike the natural rotating

ice circle Ice discs, ice circles, ice pans, ice pancakes or ice crepes are a very rare natural phenomenon that occurs in slow moving water in cold climates. They are thin circular slabs of ice that rotate slowly on a body of water's surface. Types Ice ...

History

In 2017, Janne Käpylehto carved one in Lohja, in Finland. Two men created one in Burntside Lake, near Ely, Minnesota, in 2018. An ice carousel created in

Little Falls, Minnesota Little Falls is a city in Morrison County, Minnesota, United States, near the geographic center of the state. Established in 1848, Little Falls is one of the oldest European-American cities in Minnesota. It is the county seat of Morrison County. ...

in early 2019 was dubbed the largest in the world. In December 2019, on a lake in Clerval, Abitibi, Québec, Canada, a team constructed an ice carousel with a diameter of and an area of , surpassing the prior record of set in the United States. The feat was recognized by the

World Ice Carousel Association In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

, which keeps track of records. An even larger ice carousel was cut into Lake Lappajärvi in Finland by Janne Käpylehto's team in March 2021. The carousel has a diameter of and the ice is thick, giving the carousel an estimated mass of 30-40 000 tons. The team included the mayors of the three towns surrounding the crater lake. In April 2021, Volunteers in Saint Agatha, Maine, United States of America created an even larger ice carousel totaling 1,234 feet in diameter. Roger Morneault and the Northern Maine Ice Busters used a trencher, long-bar chainsaws and six power augers to get the job done, according to Mike Cyr who was involved in the project.

References

Buildings and structures made of snow or ice Carousels {{wintersport-stub