Sunday, January 15, 2012

Iceberg Dead Ahead........

Unlike the Titanic and fortunately for us, there was no iceberg dead ahead but on 6th December we saw our first iceberg. Wow what an absolutely amazing sight. So so Beautiful!!!! It looked like the Matterhorn.


It was pretty cold outside but not as cold as I thought that it would be. Just to prove that I was really there here I am looking at the iceberg.


Icebergs look so different from different angles. Each is unique and very beautiful. The word majestic comes to mind.

Icebergs drift around the Southern Ocean carried by the currents and blown by the winds.






Icebergs come in all different shapes and sizes. Like us each one is unique and just as beautiful as the other.

Icebergs are made of freshwater ice and not frozen sea ice. They form from the edge of glaciers when the glacier reaches the sea and either breaks off in pieces to form an iceberg, or in the case of an ice shelf, begin to float on the sea and then breaks off from the rest of the glacier as a large slab. Icebergs are made up of snow that has fallen over hundreds or even thousands of years.






No matter how many icebergs we saw on our trip their beauty never ceased to amaze me.

"The tip of the iceberg" - Everybody knows that most of an iceberg lies under the water, but most don't know that the amount beneath the surface varies from about 50% to 99%. The cause of the variation is largely in the amount of air that is trapped in the ice so affecting its bouyancy. An average iceberg will be about 80-90% beneath the surface.









The grandeur of the Antarctic is something to behold and I don't think that I will ever forget seeing my first iceberg and the many ones after it.

(Thanks to the Cool Antarctica Website for the information on icebergs.)

1 comment:

  1. They are so awesome and beautiful and would be even more awesome to see in real life. I am sure that you will never ever forget seeing these .... I know I wouldn't.

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