A lake ball (also known as a surf ball, beach ball or spill ball) is a ball of debris found on ocean beaches and lakes large enough to have wave action. The rolling motion of the waves gathers debris in the water and eventually will form the materials into a ball. The materials vary from year to year and from location to location depending on the debris the motion gathers. The earliest known reference to lake balls is '' Walden'':

Larch balls

A specific type of lake ball, a larch ball is a structure created when Western Larch needles floating in a lake become entangled in a spherical shape due to the action of waves. They are most commonly known to form in

Seeley Lake, Montana Seeley Lake is a census-designated place (CDP) in Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is part of the 'Missoula, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area'. The town sits beside the 1,031.5 acres lake Seeley Lake. The population was 1,659 at ...

; however, they have also been known to form in similar regions such as Clark Fork and lakes in Tracy, New Brunswick such as Peltoma Lake,

Big Kedron Lake Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * ''Big!'', a Discovery Channel television show * ''Richard Hammond's Big'', a television show presente ...

, and

Little Kedron Lake Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

. Typical specimens are 3 to 4 inches (8 to 10 centimeters) in diameter. More rarely, larger ones are found. Image:Larch_Ball.jpg, 7 inch Larch Ball collected in Seeley Lake, Montana Image:Larch_Ball_Close_Up.jpg, Larch Ball Close Up

References

{{Reflist, 2 Hydrology Habitat