Ice jacking most commonly refers to shoreline damage caused by lakes freezing, but it has also been applied to geologic engineering and rock erosion.
When water then fills in those gaps, the process repeats and continues until there is a wall of ice surrounding the lake's shoreline, sometimes reaching up to three feet.
Ice jacking can also cause severe property damage, such as occurred on December 17, 2008, at a Gondola tower on Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler, British Columbia.
Following the incident, lift maintenance teams conducted inspections of all other towers to make sure there would be no other occurrence of ice jacking before resuming operation.
The statistical analysis studied the triggering factors of 46 rockfalls and investigated the rainfall, freeze-thaw cycles, and earthquakes in the region.
A correlation was found between slope failure and freeze-thaw cycles, suggesting that ice jacking is a major triggering factor in rockfalls.
[8] On December 17, 2008, a Gondola tower on Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler, British Columbia, collapsed due to ice jacking.
All passengers stuck in cabins on the Excalibur Gondola lift were rescued, with only twelve suffering from mild injuries.