Coudersport Ice Mine
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To the east of Coudersport (the county seat of Potter County, PA) is the Coudersport Ice Mine (discovered 1894), a cave in Ice Mountain that forms icicles in the spring and summer but not in the winter. A vertical shaft or opening about 40 feet deep, about 8 feet wide, and 10 feet long. Ice formations appear in the shaft during the spring of the year, continue through the hot weather, and disappear in winter. Ice appears in various shapes and forms, often as huge icicles measuring from 1 to 3 feet in thickness, and from 15 to 25 feet in length; the ice is generally clear and sparkling. The origin may be thus: during the winter, cold air over the hilltop sinks into rock openings in the Lock Haven Formation (Devonian age) and slowly expels the warm air that had penetrated these openings during the preceding summer. Ordinarily this process takes place locally, but here the interconnection of the rock crevices tends to be so arranged that the air circulation over a wide region is focused on one spot. Thus, from April or May to September, cold air comes in contact with percolating groundwater, forming ice during the hot months of the year; from September to late spring, warm air trapped in the rocks from the preceding summer, escapes and melts the ice.
[edit] Sources
- Shear, Thomas (no date), The wonderful ice mine - History and description of the Coudersport Ice Mine, The Coudersport Ice Mine, Coudersport, Pennsylvania, 25p.
