While the crop circle "phenomenon" has more or less faded into distant memory, every now and then something occurs in nature that wows us in similar ways.

Mississauga photographer Brook Tyler was out walking a few days ago, and stumbled upon this amazing natural "creek circle" forming on the surface of the water. Presumably, serendipitous conditions of the flow of water and freezing temperatures were responsible for the formation of the floating, rotating disk of ice.

With about 150,000 views and counting (due to being Dugg), it seems that people are impressed by what amounts to a marvel in thermo- and fluid- dynamics.

Be sure to check out the many other lovely nature images in Brook's Flickr page. I'm particularly fond of the icy red oak leaf, pictured above.

UPDATE: Rob Roberts at Posted Toronto has written an excellent, in-depth report on this creek circle, including words from the photographer, and from a river specialist who describes the phenomenon.

UPDATE: Check it out - in motion! Thanks for the video, keelypup.