Beautiful Ice Mountains!

Someone sent these pictures to me, and they remind me so much of the Icebergs that we see calve off the glaciers here in Alaska. So I wanted to share them with you, and some interesting information I have on Icebergs.

Beautiful Dome Shaped Blue Streak Iceberg

Picture by Unknown

Iceberg means Ice Mountain! An Arctic iceberg usually calves (breaks off) from a glacier. These glaciers can be thousands of years old.
A floating iceberg can drift with the flow of the water about 0.7 kilometers per hour. But the shape and size of the iceberg can affect that as can the waves and winds.

Interesting Iceberg Shape Meanings:

Tabular; An iceberg that is shaped like flat sheet .

Dome; An Iceberg with a rounded top.

Pinnacle; An iceberg with one or more spires. A spire is a tapering conical or pyramidal structure.

Dry-Dock; An iceberg that has eroded to form a slot or channel

Wedge; An iceberg with a steep edge on one side and a slope on the opposite side

Blocky; An Iceberg with steep, vertical sides and a flat top, shaped like a block.

Icebergs in the Antarctic area sometimes have stripes, formed by
Layers of snow that react to different conditions.

Blue stripes are often created when a crevice in the ice sheet
Fills up with melt water and freezes so quickly that no bubbles form.

Beautiful Pinnacle Shaped Striped IcebergPicture by Unknown

When an iceberg falls into the sea, a layer of salty seawater can
Freeze to the underside. If this is rich in algae, it can form a
Green stripe.

Brown, black and yellow lines are caused by sediment, picked up
when the ice sheet grinds downhill towards the sea.

Beautiful Tabular Shaped Striped Iceberg Picture by Unknown

Icebergs are very dangerous to boats, and ships, I am sure everyone has seen the movie Titanic… It depends on the size and shape and location on how much problems a iceberg can be, for instance, any icebergs in known shipping lands, because of the large mass, they can cause extreme damage to ships.

Even though most of them can be detected on the ship’s radars, the smaller (growlers or bergy bits) ones can cause the most damage and are harder for the radar to detect and get around in time even if they are the size of small vessels. Also, radar has a hard time detecting the icebergs that are smooth. Like the sheet (tabular) iceberg or the smaller smooth Dome shaped icebergs.

Beautiful Blue Striped Pinnacle IcebergPicture by Unknown

It can be very difficult to tell the size of the iceberg by looking at what is floating above water. Usually the iceberg bigger side is under the water, actually only one-tenth of the iceberg is above the water. Which is where the saying “tip of the iceberg” comes in, usually meaning that the visible trouble is only a small manifestation of a bigger problem.

Computer generated Picture of how an Iceberg really looks under the water

When we go to see the Portage Glacier here in Alaska, there's always Icebergs floating in the water you can touch them, but you are warned not to climb on them, because an Iceberg could turn upside down unexpectedly, and you could get caught and drown. Professional Iceberg walkers are called Iceberggers.

CU