These stone circles on Svalbard are created without any human influence. Its creator is nature and its tool is chamois growing out of the ground, as an international team of researchers has discovered
Kammeis is the name given to ice needles that grow out of the moist soil at very low temperatures. “If you go out into the garden after a frosty night and it crunches under your feet, you’re probably running on kammeis,” says Bernard Hallet of the University of Washington. Together with scientists from China, Japan and the Netherlands, he studied the natural stone patterns on the Norwegian archipelago of Spitsbergen.
When and how much the Kammeis grows out of the ground depends, among other things, on the moisture in the ground and on whether it is covered with stones, for example. More ice needles grow from exposed soil than from covered soil. They push stones that are still in the way aside. The stones are grouped over the years and patterns like these circles are created.
The scientists were able to reproduce the process in the laboratory. To do this, they distributed stones of different sizes evenly on damp ground and let it freeze and thaw over and over again. After 30 runs, the first recurring patterns had already formed. Stone circles with a diameter of several meters can be created over a longer period of time.