Warm water from under snow covered ice flows through hole in the ice,melts the snow and makes dark regions":lake creates the pattern.

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When snow falls on open water that is already thinly covered with ice, often holes form in the thin ice. Warm water from under the ice flows through the hole and snow layer and melts the snow. This leaves dark regions where the snow has melted away. The pattern thus created looks star-like and is called a `lake star'. The convection of the water under the ice creates the pattern.

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Photo credit: © durk gardenier / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
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Keywords: black, cel, circle, circles, cold, convection, flow, fluid, freeze, freezing, hole, ice, lake, layer, liquid, melt, melting, nature, organization, pattern, physics, rayleigh–énard, snow, star, starlake, warm, water, winter, énard