Environment

Ice Pancakes in Scottish River

Dozens of eerily perfect circles of slushy ice, known as "ice pancakes," have been floating on the surface of a Scottish river after temperatures in the U.K. unexpectedly plummeted.

On rivers, the pancakes form when frozen foam on the water's surface gets trapped in a spiraling current known as an eddy. As other bits of frozen foam and ice hit these forming discs, the debris joins onto the nascent pancakes, which causes them to grow.