Giant snowballs on a beach? In Siberia, thousands of bizarre snowballs have appeared on a beach. They are perfectly round and massive, and they are piling up.
Local villagers are baffled by these mysterious orbs found in the Gulf of Ob, covering an 11-mile long beach coast. The snowballs range from the size of tennis balls to almost three-feet across.
However, experts and scientists say that these orbs are a perfectly natural occurrence.
According to the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute's Sergey Lisenkov, this is a rare yet natural phenomenon. Grease ice forms first then slush, and this combines with the wind from the coastlines to form the giant, round balls.
Residents in the area were surprised as they have never seen anything like it, even those who have lived in the village fir their entire lives.
This giant snowball beach phenomenon is not just unique to Siberia, as a similar event took place in Lake Michigan during winter where ice balls the size of boulders also littered the region. Chunks of ice sheets covering the lake break apart and then mixes with the waves, eventually forming into spherical ice balls.