Photo: Lacey Cordingley

It may not be the Utah monolith, but it's still a puzzle.

Call it the Coldstream conundrum, perhaps?

Lacey Cordingley was visiting Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park this week when she came across an unusual icy erection ... pardon the pun, but the phallic phenomenon is actually a naturally occurring ice spike.

"Is it Vernon's version of the Utah monolith?" she asked, jokingly.

But, upon further research, she learned it is an ice spike.

Wikipedia describes the ice formations as inverted icicles that project upwards from the surface of a body of frozen water.

They form on the surface of small bodies of frozen water and have been reported for many decades, but are rarely seen.

Although usually measured in inches, they can grow to several feet in height under the right circumstances.

An explanation for their formation was put forth by O. Bally and H.E. Dorsey in the early 20th century.

The spikes tend to form in containers such as bird baths and pet drinking bowls, where the water freezes quickly, rather than in large bodies of water such as lakes and ponds. And, the local example appears to have grown from a small puddle on a rocky outcrop.

The spikes may be cylindrical or triangular in shape (like the Kal Park one) and form as "surface water nucleates around irregularities where it meets the container wall and freezes inward.... As the film of ice grows to cover most of the surface, the crystals merge and become fixed rigidly in place and the sheet of ice continues freezing towards the middle until only a small hole remains unfrozen. 

"The continuing expansion of the ice downwards into the water then squeezes the remaining water up through the hole, and a convex meniscus is formed, which bulges slightly higher than the surface of the ice. As the edges of the meniscus freeze, they create a small dam which causes the water to rise higher."

The process repeats, and successive layers form a tube of ice that continues to grow until the tip freezes over or all the water is frozen.