Stunning pictures as frozen Lake Michigan shatters into ice shards

A frozen lake in the US has shattered into millions of ice shards, and the spectacle is stunning.

Shards of ice pile up on Lake Michigan along the South Haven Pier in South Haven, Michigan. Picture: Joel Bissell/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP

Spring is beckoning in the US, and the result on frozen Lake Michigan is stunning.

The lake has shattered into millions of ice shards on its surface this week, as water moving underneath the ice begins to thaw.

The stacked patterns of blue ice stretch almost as far as the eye can see. Picture: Joel Bissell/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP

It’s melting more quickly than usual, with the water pushing the shards into a pile-up on the surface, which looks like a dramatic, stacked ice shard mosaic, Mlive.com reports.

The blue ice shard sea sent photographers in search of the perfect shot — with the US Coast Guard warning them to stay only on solid ground: as firm as the shard-shrouded lake may look, the ice is deteriorating.

Temperatures in the lake during winter dipped as low a -30 Celsius — enough to freeze 56 per cent of the lake — after a polar vortex brought below-freezing temperatures to parts of the US.

Shards of ice pile up because of the water moving underneath as the lake rapidly thaws. Picture: Joel Bissell/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP