An 18-kilometre stretch of beach in the frosty depths of Russia has been covered by thousands of giant snowballs. The smooth icy spheres range in size, with some larger than a basketball.
The strange event occurred along the coast of Nyda, a Siberian town just above the Arctic Circle.
It’s been a particularly chilly and snowy past month for the area – and in Siberia, that’s saying something. This could perhaps explain the freak goings-on, although no one is actually certain.
Sergei Lisenkov, press secretary of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, says it’s possible that the slushy ice formed when the water began to leave the beach. The strong winds then rolled this slush over the wet sand, which allowed new layers of ice to form on top of each other.