Massive Ice Wave Comes Ashore in Minnesota and Manitoba (Video)

Forget about tsunamis. Forget about floods. What you should be worried about is ice this spring. Imagine a giant wall of ice crashing forward, relentlessly advancing across the landscape and toward nearby houses. That's exactly what happened in Minnesota yesterday, May 12.

The creeping wave of ice was caused as strong winds pushed floes toward the water's edge. This, in turn, created cascades of ice crystals which were crushed against trees and houses. Although one house was slightly damaged by the incident, most other locations escaped intact.

"It basically has the same mechanism of an iceberg," said CNN meteorologist Todd Boreck, according to The Inquisitr. "Winds, but more so ocean currents, allow icebergs to drift. Same premise: A chunk of ice (relatively shallow) was pushed by a strong, sustained wind. The momentum of the ice sheet overcame the friction of the land."

The lake where this particular phenomenon occurred is known as Lake Mille Lacs. Located roughly 100 miles north of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, it's known for the numerous resorts surrounding it. It's the second-largest inland lake after Red Lake, and has a maximum depth of about 42 feet.

Yet this lake isn't the only one to have experienced this bizarre phenomenon recently. On Friday, a similar ice wave struck Dauphin Lake in Manitoba. There, the ice tsunami piled up to nine feet and had some residents fleeing for their lives.

"It was just a big roar and you could see it coming, and you kept thinking 'it's not coming any farther-it's going to stop', but it just kept on coming," said cottage owner, Myles Haverluck in an interview with 9news.com.

That particular incident was far more severe than the one in Minnesota. It actually destroyed several homes as ice piled up toward rooftops.

Want to see the creeping ice for yourself? You can check out the bizarre video below, courtesy of YouTube.