They look like the work of a twisted science artist. Some maniac who spent hours dreaming up nightmare shapes made of ice. But no, these monstrous and lovely ice sculptures were formed by natural processes. Here are some of the most other-worldly ice formations on Earth.


Top image: the 35-foot tall St. Joseph lighthouse near Lake Michigan, photo by Tom Gill, via Amusing Planet.

Frozen Niagara Falls, 1911


(via Hoax-Slayer)

Ice-covered lampposts from the spray of Niagara Falls, 1927

(via Ontario Ministry of Government Services, photo by John Boyd)

After a storm in Winthrop, Massachusetts, 1927



(photo by Leslie Jones, via Boston Public Library)

After an ice storm in Minnesota, 1966


(via Domeischel Gallery)

Truck covered with ice in Mount Prospect, Illinois, December 2000


(Photo by Tim Boyle/Newsmakers, via Getty Images)

Ice-encrusted landscape at Lake Leman, Switzerland, 2005 and 2008




(Photos by Jean-Pierre Scherrer, via sir-ray, Schwingen In Switzerland and Martial Trezzini/Keystone, via AP)


Ice covers the lighthouse of South Haven, Michigan in 2007


(via ispank.me and Tom Gill)

A place from a fairy tale in Estonia, 2008


(via English Russia)

Rocks and trees along the Lake Erie, Cleveland, Ohio, December 2010


(Photo by AP/Mark Duncan)

A lighthouse at the entrance to Cleveland harbor, Ohio, 2010


(Photo by AP/Mark Duncan)

A lonely tree after storm


(via trasyy)

A child runs past a wave protection dam covered in ice as the waters of the Black Sea are frozen near the shore in Constanta, Romania, 2012


(Photo by AP/Vadim Ghirda)

The aftermath of an ice storm in Petrozavodsk, Russia


(via AcidCow)

Ice covers a bench, a lamp and the ground on the shore of Lake Balaton in Balatonfenyves, Hungary, March 2013


(Photo by AP/MTI/Gyorgy Varga)

Icebreaker Louis Saint Laurent in Resolute Bay, Nunavut Territory, Canada (74°42' N, 95°18' W)


(photo by Yann Arthus Bertrand, via Earth From Above)

Bonus: A Chicago Warehouse covered in ice after a fire, January 2013


(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)