Top 30 Strange and Creepy Things Found Frozen in Ice

Top 30 Strange and Creepy Things Found Frozen in Ice

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the creepiest, most fascinating, and bizarre things that have been found under or in ice.

#30: Frozen Waves
Picture a 50-foot wave that could cause a sweep of destruction across all in its path. Yet stopping it was the freezing temperatures that turned it into ice. Seemingly, this was what scientist Tony Travouillon captured near the Dumont d'Urville Station in Antarctica. However, this mammoth ripple isn’t actually a wave. Instead, the structure was created from compressed ice forcing out air. This phenomenon absorbs red light but transmits blue light, giving it a stunning color. The closest we’ve gotten to flash-frozen waves was in 2015 with Jonathan Nimerfroh’s photographs in Nantucket, Massachusetts. The water was filled with ice, slowing the wave's movement significantly. Nimerfroh nicknamed the event “Slurpee Waves,” which is fitting.

#29: See-Through Fish
In 2015, the Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling team was at the “grounding zone” near the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The plan was to see the effect of climate change on ice lower down. After drilling around 2,500 feet, a device with a camera was inserted that made a strange discovery. A bunch of translucent fish were in an area so tough to live in that scientists once believed it couldn’t sustain life. Speculated to be part of the suborder Notothenioidei, you can see the innards of the fish, which is a little disturbing. In 2021, under the Antarctic ice-covered Weddell Sea, scientists found a 60 million colony of icefish, the Neopagetopsis ionah, which have translucent skulls and transparent blood.

#28: Millions of Grasshoppers
According to science fiction films, when living beings are flash-frozen and then the ice melts, the creatures within could lay siege to the world. Well, if that could happen, Montana would have an issue. Within the Beartooth Mountains is the Grasshopper Glacier, that’s filled with tens of millions of the creatures. It’s believed the insects may have been there for thousands of years. Research has found that some of the contained bugs belong to extinct species, like the Rocky Mountain locust. How all these grasshoppers got frozen remains a mystery. However, it’s speculated a massive storm engulfed the traveling swarm. Climate change is melting the ice, releasing the deceased bugs from their entrapment.

#27: Swiss Couple
In 1942, Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin went to feed their cattle one morning in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. That was the last time their children heard from their parents. Without them, the siblings were split up and raised by different families, losing contact over the years. In 2017, a technician for a ski-lift company was examining equipment on the Tsanfleuron Glacier in the Alps when they found strange black rocks. However, on closer inspection, it turned out to be items, like backpacks and glass bottles, and two bodies within the ice. DNA analysis soon confirmed it was the missing Dumoulin couple. Seemingly, they had fallen into a crevasse and sadly lost their lives. The surviving children held a funeral for their parents.

#26: Mount Erebus
Hidden within the icy tundra of Antarctica is Mount Erebus, the highest active volcano on the continent. And should it erupt viciously, several scientific stations in the area and the people within would be at risk. Hidden by the ice surrounding it, since at least 1972, it has had a continuing lake of lava in its core. The volcano contains several caves and tunnels, where little lives except bacteria and fungi. Erebus is regularly releasing its contents, including gas that some scientists believe is depleting the ozone layer in the region. In 1979, the volcano was also the site of a plane disaster. A miscommunication of coordinates caused Air New Zealand Flight 901 to fly into Erebus, costing 257 people their lives.

#25: Lots of Fish Lizards
Third time is a disturbing charm for researchers who visited Chile’s Tyndall Glacier in the Torres del Paine National Park. In 2014, the team examined rocks exposed by the melting glacier ice. There they found a graveyard filled with various species of 46 near-complete remains of Ichthyosauria, also known as Fish Lizards in Ancient Greek. Believed to be from around 150 million to 100 million years ago, it’s speculated a sudden mudslide swallowed the school of marine reptiles as they traversed the waters. On top of the skeletons, some soft tissues were preserved, which showed that some of the creatures were pregnant, giving scientists valuable information on how the extinct Ichthyosauria lived.

#24: The Endurance
A ship underwater always has a touch of dread about it. In 1915, Ernest Shackleton was leading an expedition to the Antarctic with the vessel the Endurance. However, ice on the ocean’s surface badly damaged the boat. While attempts were made to free it, the crew abandoned the Endurance. Soon after, the structure was wrecked as pack ice crushed it, causing it to sink to the Weddell Sea’s depths. While everyone on the voyage survived the experience and returned home, the Endurance was believed lost. But that changed in 2022. Researchers of the Endurance22 team used technology to locate the vessel 10,000 feet below. Impressively, the ship wasn’t too degraded due to the lack of wood-eating critters in the ocean.

#23: Zug-Zug the Caveman
Imagine walking around Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis, enjoying the fresh air. But then, you suddenly stop as you come across an unusual site: a caveman entombed in a block of ice. Well, that was what happened in 2021. But fear not, there’s an explanation for it. After being commissioned by ad agency Hunt Adkins the year before to create Zug-Zug the Caveman for an event, artist Zach Schumack and his collective put the artwork in the park, encouraging people to not use their phones and explore the outdoors. Schumack also stated that Zarah, “The Mother Huntress,” was out there, and this cavewoman was later found. The name Zug Zug is seemingly a nod to the 1981 film, “Caveman,” which used the phrase for…intimate relations.

#22: Fish Eating Fish
When you’re fishing, typically, you’re going to see marine creatures. But brothers Alex and Anton Babich got a lot more than they bargained for when they enjoyed their hobby on the frozen waters at Lake Wawasee, Indiana, in 2017. The duo stumbled across suspended nature in action when they found a pike eating a bass within the ice. Alex stated his theory for how this eerie sight happened. He believed the bass was let go by another fishing person but perished and bobbled near the lake’s surface. A pike took advantage and tried to eat it, only to choke and also lose its life. A sudden drop in temperature then encased the fishy pair in ice.

#21: Anthrax-Infected Reindeer
With climate change melting the permafrost, in 2016, a pathogen that had been contained by ice for years was suddenly released and caused havoc in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug of Russia. A heatwave in the area thawed a 75-year-old reindeer carcass. Unfortunately, the body was infected with deadly anthrax. When it was eaten by wildlife, the bacteria spread rapidly and the area was put under quarantine. Within two months, over 2500 reindeer perished, a massive loss to the herding nomadic families in the area. Authorities also announced a culling of 100,000 reindeer to reduce the risk of infection. The anthrax also spread to humans, causing around 100 to need hospitalization. Sadly, there was one human fatality.

#20: Lifeforms in a Subglacial Lake
Life really does seem to find a way! Lake Vostok is a massive subglacial lake found in Antarctica, located beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The lake has been sealed away under 13,100 feet of ice for millions of years. That means no sunlight, unimaginably freezing temperatures, and immense physical pressure from the surface. Yet studies of ice cores have concluded that the lake could be home to exotic microbes. In fact, one team found evidence of over 3,500 species. It’s theorized that this little society lives on its own recycled carbon; however, the results are debated, with other scientists believing that the samples were contaminated.

#19: A Martian Meteorite
On December 27, 1984, a team from the Antarctic Search for Meteorites found a small fragment of Martian rock buried in the ice. Now known as Allan Hills 84001, the meteorite weighs just over four pounds and is estimated to have formed from molten rock over four billion years ago. Said meteorite made national headlines in 1996 when scientists claimed to have found fossils of microscopic bacteria within the rock - which seemingly confirmed that there’d once been life on Mars. However, this claim was enormously controversial within the wider scientific community and was ultimately rejected due to a lack of substantial evidence. Life or no, a four billion-year-old rock from Mars is still pretty creepy on its own...

#18: An Entire Mountain Range
Located in East Antarctica is the subglacial Gamburtsev Mountain Range. Discovered by Soviet geophysicist Grigoriy Gamburtsev, they’re said to be the same size as the Alps. They tower roughly 9,000 feet high, and run for about 750 miles. The only thing is, you can’t actually see the mountains themselves, as they’re buried under 2,000 feet of ice! We don’t know about you, but we find the concept of an entire mountain range buried under 2,000 feet of ice weirdly disturbing. The Earth really is a fascinating place, isn’t it?

#17: Sacrificed Incan Children
In 1999, three mummies were found at the icy summit of Llullaillaco, a stratovolcano located in the Atacama Desert. These mummies are known as the Children of Llullaillaco, and they could be the best-preserved mummies in the entire world. One is the body of a teenage girl, and the other two are children believed to be around six and seven years old. It’s assumed that they are the victims of a human sacrifice meant to ensure a rich harvest and that they were killed around the year 1500. They were heavily drugged with alcohol and coca, placed five feet underground while asleep, and left to die. A combination of the freezing temperatures and extremely dry air have helped preserve their bodies for centuries.

#16: Yuka the Mammoth
Now just imagine coming across the mummified corpse of a freaking woolly mammoth! Well, that’s exactly what happened to the local people of Yukagir, a village near the Laptev Sea of Siberia. Found in 2010, the mammoth died approximately 39,000 years ago. Even at somewhere between six and eight years old, it weighed roughly five tons. It’s now on display in Moscow, and it is...quite creepy, to say the least. You can clearly make out its face, and stringy strands of light brown hair still cling to its body. It’s considered to be the best-preserved mammoth in the world, and we can certainly see why!

#15: A Body
Sadly, we’re not talking about an ancient mummy for this one. In 2017, a hiker discovered a dead body in a crevasse on New Zealand’s Fox Glacier, and contacted police. While some believed the corpse was decades old, the fact that it was found in a crevasse led glaciologist Andrew Mackintosh to assume that it was no more than five years old. His guess was correct. Further study found that the corpse was that of Cynthia Charlton, a British woman who died in a helicopter accident in November 2015. She was one of the crash’s seven victims, which also included her husband.

#14: Mexican Climbers
Now here’s a creepy story for you. A climber on the slopes of Mexico’s Pico de Orizaba slipped and came face to face with a mummified head and arm protruding from the snow. That’s how episodes of “CSI” start! The authorities were called in, and two more frozen mummies were eventually discovered. An 81-year-old named Luis Espinosa declared he knew the mummies, as he was part of a tragic expedition that claimed three lives back in 1959. He recognized one of the men from his shirt and ring, which was emblazoned with his initials. It’s certainly nice for Luis to finally get some peace. But just imagine being the guy who found a mummified head sticking out of the snow!

#13: The Remains of Andrée’s Arctic Expedition
In the late 19th century, Swedish balloonist S. A. Andrée set out to reach the North Pole via hot air balloon. Many experts claimed that this was a terrible idea, but Andrée’s optimism and nationalistic pride caused him to ignore their warnings. He and two companions set off in July 1897...and were never heard from again. It wasn’t until 1930 that their remains were found by an expedition studying the nearby glaciers. Included in the find was preserved photographic film, allowing us to see the tragedy first hand - including photos of the crashed balloon. The balloon had crashed just two days after liftoff and the men had trekked back south. They died approximately three months later.

#12: A Preserved Mummy Head
In 2017, archaeologists found mummies buried in the Zeleniy Yar burial site near the Russian town of Salekhard. They found two mummies - one an adult woman and the other a baby. These mummies are estimated to be 900 years old and are said to be part of an unknown Medieval culture. The interesting thing was that the female mummy is the only female in the burial ground, leading some to assume that she was an elite member of society. It’s also interesting (and creepy!) because only her head has been preserved. On the head you can still see her hair and eyelashes, and her face has a green tint due to the copper she was buried in.

#11: Three Members of the Franklin Expedition
Many are familiar with the ill-fated Franklin Expedition from Dan Simmons’s novel “The Terror” and its television adaptation. Three members of the expedition - John Torrington, William Braine, and John Hartnell - passed away shortly after departure and before the ships became stuck in the pack ice. They were buried on Beechey Island, Nunavut in 1846 and exhumed in 1984. What anthropologists found were remarkably preserved corpses, albeit incredibly disturbing ones. Their faces are contorted, their eyes frozen open, and their skin horribly frostbitten. Now imagine opening the coffins and seeing that...

#10: Ice Caves & Frozen Waves
We don’t know if this is spectacular or oddly terrifying. Iceland’s Vatna Glacier is Europe’s second-largest ice cap, covering roughly 8% of the country. It’s quite a famous glacier and has been seen in many pieces of pop culture throughout the years, including “Game of Thrones” and the James Bond film “A View to a Kill.” Beneath the glacier are massive ice caves, with ceilings and walls that look like giant waves frozen in time. They’re actually created by geothermal springs. It’s surreal, it’s gorgeous, but it’s also kind of unsettling. Talk about feeling claustrophobic!

#9: Ötzi the Iceman
Ötzi is perhaps the most famous natural mummy in the world. Found in 1991 on the border of Austria and Italy, Ötzi is the naturally mummified corpse of a man who died around 3300 BC. The mummy was actually found by German tourists. They were hiking along a mountain path in the Ötztal Alps when they found the upper half of the mummy sticking out of the ice. It’s currently believed that the man bled to death after being struck by an arrow. His skinny, discolored, and leathery-looking body is now on display at Italy’s South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.

#8: A Mysterious Pyramid
The internet was abuzz in 2016 when a mysterious pyramid-like structure was photographed in Antarctica. Some people speculated that humans once inhabited Antarctica and built pyramids like the Egyptians, and conspiracy theorists went straight to aliens. It was creepy and it was intriguing, even if we knew the explanation was going to be boring. And it was. Turns out that the “pyramid” was just the peak of a buried mountain sticking out of the snow. As University of California’s Eric Rignot hilariously and succinctly put it, “This is just a mountain that looks like a pyramid.” Still kind of cool we guess, just not as cool as an ancient Antarctic society!

#7: Dinosaur Bones
It turns out that many dinosaur bones have been found in the frozen tundra of the Antarctic. The first were discovered in 1986 by Argentinian geologists Eduardo Olivero and Roberto Scasso, who unearthed remains of an ankylosaur now known as Antarctopelta Oliveroi. These bones were found on James Ross Island, as were bones of a Trinisaura. Other dinosaurs found in Antarctica include those of a Glacialisaurus and the massive carnivore Cryolophosaurus. But it’s not like these dinosaurs were roaming an icy landscape. Antarctica as we know it only formed about 25 million years ago, long after the dinosaurs had gone extinct. Before that, it was part of a supercontinent called Gondwana and was actually quite tropical!

#6: Ancient Bacteria
Scientists digging in the Arctic permafrost of Alaska made a startling discovery in 2005. They found ancient bacteria that had been completely frozen in the ice for roughly 32,000 years! To make matters even creepier, this bacteria came back to life after being thawed, with astrobiologist Richard Hoover claiming, “They immediately started swimming when the ice melted.” According to NASA, this made the bacteria “the first fully described, validated species ever found alive in ancient ice.” The extremophiles are now known as Carnobacterium pleistocenium, and they are absolutely terrifying. They came back to life! After 30,000 years!

#5: Mysterious Holes
In 2016 and 2017, people around the world were creeped out when massive holes appeared in the Antarctic ice. These holes were found in the Weddell Sea and one covered an area of 31,000 square miles, making it roughly the size of Maine. Now that is one big hole. Experts deduced that this was a “polynya,” which is the fancy term for a hole of open water in the middle of sea ice. And while scientists knew what the hole was, they didn’t know how it got there, as polynyas are typically found near the coast. Known as the Weddell Polynya, it hadn’t been seen since 1976. It was likely caused by an intense winter cyclone.

#4: Bloody Looking Water
If this list proves anything, it’s that Antarctica is the place of nightmares. Where else can you find what looks like blood pouring out the side of a glacier? The area is fittingly named Blood Falls, and it flows from Taylor Glacier onto the surface of Lake Bonney. The Falls were discovered in 1911 by Australian geologist Griffith Taylor (hence Taylor Glacier). After presumably freaking out, Taylor attributed the “blood” to red algae. It was a good guess, but the “blood” is actually just saltwater tainted with large amounts of iron oxide. Yep, Blood Falls is essentially just rusty water pouring from a glacier. Still horrifying, though.

#3: Viruses
One major fear of global warming is that it could release unknown pathogens into the air, some of which may have the capacity to seriously hinder and endanger humanity. In 2015, researchers from China and the United States traveled to the Guliya ice cap in Tibet and drilled a 164-foot hole into the ice to study samples. What they found was positively nightmarish - no less than 33 different viruses, 28 of which had never been seen by human eyes. According to environmental virologist Chantal Abergel, “We are very far from sampling the entire diversity of viruses on Earth.” That’s positively unsettling, considering 28 were found in a Tibetan glacier alone!

#2: World War I Soldiers
During World War I, Allies battled the Austro-Hungarian Empire along the snowy mountains of the Alps. Thousands upon thousands of soldiers were killed by avalanches and the frigid temperatures, which sometimes dipped to -22 Fahrenheit. Beginning in the early 2010s, the mountain ice began to melt and started depositing long-lost frozen artifacts around the area. These included weapons, still-legible love letters, and dozens of mummified corpses. It’s a horrifying symbol of one of the most frightening periods of modern history.

#1: Remains of a Military Transport Aircraft
In November 1952, a military transport aircraft carrying 52 people crashed into Alaska’s Chugach Mountains. Rescue crews were sent to look for the aircraft, and its tail was found sticking out of the snow on Mount Gannett at an elevation of 8,000 feet. The crash had caused an avalanche and buried the wreckage, and rescue efforts couldn’t dig through the thick snow. Rescue was abandoned and the wreckage was lost for the next 60 years. It wasn’t until June 2012 that it was rediscovered by the Alaska Army National Guard. While on a training mission, they discovered the plane’s survival raft on Colony Glacier, roughly 14 miles from the crash site. This led to an investigation that uncovered the nearby wreckage.

If you had to live on an island in the Arctic or on the Antarctic continent for a year, which would you pick and why? Let us know below!