Its a small cave, or a pit, with an eight-feet-wide by ten-feet-long opening in the ground.
At the bottom of the forty-foot deep chasm is a layer of ice.
This is the Coudersport Ice Mine, one of natures many ice-manufacturing plants.
The ice starts to form in spring, increasing in volume as the weather gets hotter and hotter.
When this cold air comes in contact with percolating groundwater, ice is formed.
This happens only during spring and summer because of the availability of groundwater during these seasons.
As the warm escapes through the ice cave, it melts the ice from the summer.
These crevices are the ones that possibly trap and bring cold air into the ice cave.
Dodds litter experiment also shows that ice forms not only inside the cave but inside the crevices as well.
The mine was relatively unknown at the time the article was published.
Today, its a curious little attraction.
Photo credit:www.pri.org
Sources:Wikipedia/www.pri.org/Mother Nature web connection/Popular Science Monthly
