Monday, March 17, 2008

Banded icebergs


I was fascinated to see these pictures from the Antarctic Ocean. (Click them for a larger view.)




They were photographed by Oyvind Tangen, a Norwegian sailor, almost 700 miles north of the Antarctic.




According to the report linked above, they're formed by dust and gravel over which glaciers slide on their way to the sea, or by melt-water filling cracks in the ice and freezing quickly before bubbles can form and give the ice a whiter color.

To give you an idea of the scale, the first iceberg is about 150 feet long and 30 feet high, while the second is about 100 feet tall.

Fascinating what nature comes up with, isn't it?

Peter

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Scary thought is the mass below the surface. You can usually only see a small percentage of the iceberg above the water. 80-90% is below the waves. (Thus the saying "just the tip of the iceberg")