'Is This The Work Of Aliens?': Bizarre Frozen Sand Structures Comes Up Along Lake Michigan In The US

To an unsuspecting person, the sight might have looked like a scene out from a sci-fi movie or to a space enthusiast, a picture from an alien planet, except there's a beach and two lighthouses in the background giving away it's not from a faraway planet.

It turns out, these are the images of mysterious structures that sprung up on the beaches of Lake Michigan in the US.?

Nature Is Lit (Via Reddit.com)

According to reports, these images were shared by landscape and nature photographer Joshua Nowicki who has shared many interesting natural phenomenon pictures in the past but says the sculptures this year were the biggest he's ever seen.

"(They) are some of the tallest ones that I have ever photographed - the largest being about 15 inches tall," he said.

The pictures that have now gone viral have led people to speculate about how they were created as some people jokingly called them the work of aliens while others compared it to? “chess pieces made of sand” or “sand hoodoos”.

Joshua Nowicki (via IG)

However, you may take a sigh of relief and be assured that these structures aren’t the creation of aliens as Alan Arbogast, the chair of the Geography Department at Michigan State University who also studies the state's dunes explained that these sand formations are created just like a sculptor chisels away at the stone until a form emerges.?

"I imagine what happened is that the sand is frozen. Then, we had a big storm roll through a couple weeks ago with strong winds. The wind blew along the beach and blasted out the areas that were a little less frozen," he explained. "Those things aren't being built up. Everything around the features that are standing up was eroded from it. Those are the things that are left behind.

Considering that the US is having a spell of harsh winter, it along with brutal winds in early January makes for perfect conditions for the phenomenon to occur.?

While the frigid temperatures aren't ideal for humans, it's clearly the perfect weather to form these sandy creations and thanks to enthusiasts and photographers like Joshua Nowicki who got us images like these.