Mar 14 2008
A striped iceberg
The post about the “marbled iceberg” got a lot of attention. Here is a new post about an icebergs in the Antarctic Ocean. This time the focus is on a striped iceberg. At first I thought that a part of the iceberg was split, but the dark blue stripe is actually a part of the iceberg.
A closer look at the photo (see below) shows that the dark stripe seems to be made of frozen water.
I guess that the dark stripe must have been horizontal when it was made. Below you can see a picture of another iceberg with a dark stripe. Photos: Øyvind Tangen.
That is so cool.
Thanks for your message @ Entrecard. Trust me, I totally understand about how time-consuming it is.
Thanks for the ec, and for having a great site!
Don’t worry – I love your posts, and will keep coming back!
Cheers!
Such beautiful pictures! Wonderful.
Those pictures are stunning. I visited Alaska a few years ago and saw things there that I could never have dreamed up on my own. The glaciers were fantastic in the literal sense of the word.
That is so cool…it looks exactly like a split down the middle. I love how I feel when I stop by this blog…I may have said this before, but I can taste the salt water and feel the sea breeze- it’s wonderful-
In addition, I really appreciate your e-mail about leaving Entrecard, because I love your site and I would have wondered what happened…
Plus, I thank you for the Entrecard credits… it’s not often one witnesses such kindness- it made my day~
I will most certainly return~
I’m a loyal reader~
Ann
A Nice Place In The Sun
Thank you all for comments and kind words. There has been some weird icebergs on A Fish Blog recently. Here is a bigger and more “normal” iceberg:
Hello “A Fish Blog” admin!
I work for a children’s science magazine (ODYSSEY), and I would love to publish a photo of the marbled iceberg. Do you have the photographer’s contact information, or know if these images are available for editorial use? ODYSSEY magazine is educational and non-advertising, for children ages 10-16.
Thank you so much for sharing this story.
Thanks for comment Kathryn! The photos (marbled- and striped iceberg) are already sold and they are now distributed by an agency in London.
if the dark stripe is made of frozen water, then what is the rest of the ‘ice’ berg made out of?
Very interesting…does anyone know the answers for the following questions?
Has anyone explored any of the icebergs?
Do we know their ages?
Any educated guess about the dark areas?
The dark blue ice is older ice. I tried to look up a good explanation of how you get the dark blue ice, but I couldn’t find one offhand. I believe, however, that the color has something to do with the slow removal of air bubbles inside the ice over time due to pressure thanks to the movement of glaciers. When the ice has less air in it, this changes how light is refracted, thus making blue the predominant color.
Why does it occur in bands like this? Well, forces are distributed unevenly in many cases and in this case there just appears to have been a particularly large amount of pressure there. It’s not uncommon to see much larger pieces of blue, and in fact many entire glaciers have a bluish color to them.
In short, what you’re seeing is highly compressed, almost air-free ice. Just like when we look at a deep pool of water and see blue, so too can we look at a piece of pure ice and see blue as well. The only reason we don’t see blue for all ice is due to the air bubbles trapped inside.
Hope that helps!
Wait so the dark park of the iceburg is frozen water?
I must be confused as to what an ‘iceburg’ is made out of then :\
(nice photos though ^_^)
The blue stripe is blue ice usually one million years old it is clear blue due to being under incredible pressure and it is absolutely pure not even bacteria for the most part..
I’ve had it brought back from the south pole region and we used it in Scotch…that was one million year old ice if not older..
These icebergs also show that sections of very old ancient ice are coming off the shelf there have been on for so so long..
Sorry to bother you again — do you know which photo agency purchased these images? I’m still trying to track them down, with not much luck!
Thanks for your help.
Hi Kathryn! Barcroft Media: http://www.barcroftmedia.com/
Awesome! Ahahaha! Stop it, you’re killing me! Anyway, I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought this is great.
It’s rather awesome,I have been searching materials relate to these stuffs for my paper.and it really helps me.