This is the incredible moment "ice volcanoes" erupted after freezing weather on Lake Michigan.

The rare phenomenon was captured during a cold weather spell on Oval Beach in Michigan on February 17.

Footage shows how water hitting the shoreline is forced up through mounds of ice which resemble volcanoes.

The video was taken in Saugatuck, a city in Allegan County, by meteorologists from the US National Weather Service Grand Rapids Michigan.

They said: ''You never know what you'll find at the lake until you go out there. Today it was volcanoes.''

Ice volcanoes are cone-shaped mounds of ice formed as part of the leading edge of an ice shelf as they build out into a lake. They are nicknamed "volcanoed" but do not contain hot lava.

Cort Spholten, a meteorologist with the NWS Grand Rapids, said that ice volcanoes tend to form on shorelines where currents strike.

He said: "The waves were strong enough so the water channels through, it squeezes water upwards and tosses the floating ice up.

''As it happens, over the course of hours or days, it forms a cone, and it resembles a volcano."

Researchers at Michigan Tech said that ice volcanic cones can range in size from less than one meter to more than eight meters high. The largest cones form near sand bars and rock reefs.