« More Brussels power grabbing. | Main | Napoleon revised? »
December 16, 2005
Icy Colours and Shapes
As I have said before icebergs are pieces of ice from a glacier that have eventually travelled to the open sea. Glaciers are usually white on the surface as the one below.
Glacier near Nassarsuaq in the Southwest of Greenland
While moving down the mountain this glacier had formed several small hollows at its 'belly'. So we were actually able to climb underneath the glacier.
Picture taken from underneath the glacier
At this point the pressure from the all the ice above is turning the bottom layer into water thereby creating a sort of film on which the glacier gently slides downhill. Ice that contains a certain amount of liquid water turns blue. It was quite a magnificent sight there underneath all that ice.
The blue colour can also be observed on icebergs that are dissolving. The one below looks a bit sorry for itself already.
Dissolving iceberg
Icebergs also come along in all kinds of shapes. We encountered
a distant cousin of Nessie ...
... and a playful Ice Horse (at the front).
I know icebergs can be a serious hazard for ships and off-shore platforms but they do make the sea look a lot more interesting!
Posted by Mausi at December 16, 2005 09:44 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://mt3.mu.nu/mt/mt-tb.cgi/3592