the sound of ice while wild skating - Michaela Scalisi
a lot of reblogs express anxiety that these sounds indicate the ice is dangerously thin. this is not the sound of ice breaking beneath weight. it's actually the sound of ice deforming, expanding, and contracting! Ice contracts when temperatures lower and expands again as temperatures rise, often during the daytime with sun shining on it. That doesn't mean it's melted through or about to give way.
You could think of the surface of a frozen lake as a very large drumhead or a giant audio speaker. You may not perceive that the drumhead deforms and vibrates when it’s struck, but it does. If lake ice did not deform under your weight or the weight of your car, both would pass through the ice as it shatters. Because ice deforms, you and your car are able to ‘float’ on the ice atop the water [...] Any abrupt change in the ice will create a vibration of the ice surface that will vibrate as it damps out due to friction with the air and water. Sounds of Ice, University of Minnesota Duluth
Always keep off of ice unless you or someone with you has crucial knowledge and experience to be safe, but 'singing ice' is not unusual and not necessarily unsafe.
