Ice caves

The sea erodes icebergs in an endless and fascinating array of patterns. The deeper the ice, the bluer it looks.

Peter I Island

A bizarre freshwater pond within an iceberg, seen at dawn off Peter I Island, Bellingshausen Sea

Sea pond

A meltwater pool in an iceberg. The green tinge is presumably freshwater algae which has grown after the continuous summer daylight here. Look carefully and see the pond contains lilypad-shaped ice discs called pancake ice.

Prince Gustav Channel

Sunset in the Weddell Sea

Marine Ice

Marine ice is green. Rarely found, it is neither 'sea ice' nor 'land ice', but it requires both in order to form. It's origin is at the grounding line of an ice-shelf, where super-cooled and super-saline seawater gathers iron-rich sediment and solidifies to the face of the ice-shelf. Iron reflects red light, and ice reflects blue. Mixed together they reflect green.

Layers of Blue

This iceberg stood out from the rest. The layers were an electric blue and very well defined, showing centuries of snow accumulation. It is under attack from the rough seas around South Orkney, which gnaw at it, causing it to tilt and roll as it loses mass from one side

Who Knew?

Green ice. It really is a thing. It forms at the grounding line of an ice-shelf, where super-cooled and super-saline seawater gathers iron-rich sediment and solidifies to the face of the ice-shelf. Iron reflects red light, and ice reflects blue. Mixed together they reflect green.

Wind-Carved Ice

This ice dome at Cape Obelisk on James Ross Island has been shaped by centuries of wind. The ridge behind it has a gap which allows the wind to funnel over Cape Obelisk, bringing with it the dust which discolours the icy slopes.

Garibaldi Moraine

A medial moraine on the face of the Garibaldi Glacier, composed of pulvarised rock, eroded by the ice scraping the sides of a valley

Disintegration

Tabular icebergs, likely from the world's largest iceberg (at the time). A68A was 87 x 24 nautical miles: the largest free object on earth. It was once part of the Larsen C ice-shelf which is rapidly disintegrating.

Gentoo Pengiuns | Pygoscelis papua | Tabular Iceberg

Gentoo penguins on a tabular iceberg, Larsen Iceshelf collapse, global warming, climate change, Iceberg A57A,

Brash Ice

Brash ice arranged by size by the wind; wind-sorted brash ice; decaying iceberg; open water; ice boundary; aerial photo