'The Ice' - 3rd Antarctic missive

Well, this is the one I’m most excited about – not sure if it’ll translate, but to me, this was the crux, the ‘raison d’ètre’ of my trip! While there were always whoops of joy from those on board about whale sightings, and their frivolities in the water, I was transfixed by the surreal natural sculptures of icebergs and the ocean itself. I was moved to tears on a couple of occasions, not only with the sheer enormity of the place, but of the majestic silence of these giants, that I thought mostly didn’t look real, and the deep, plush, velvety satin surface of the ocean that harbours such a variety of life in vast quantities. I guess that hints at the human incapacity (well, mine at least!) to comprehend nature on such scale of enormity. The icebergs alone are huge, and you know you’re only looking at about 10% of it. Can’t quite believe what you can’t see, eventhough you know it’s there. I hope many of you know what I mean. Just think of the times where you’ve felt like an insignificant speck when you’ve been in open ocean, or at the top of a mountain, or in the middle of a plain or desert. I think the humility that I experience in such places is something that us humans should really do a lot more of. As well as this being the closest I think I’ll get to nirvana in this life, I find it to be grounding and puts an awful lot into perspective. Highly spiritual for me, and joyfully overwhelming.

I read on many occasions before heading off to this mighty frozen ice cap that people who’d been there ran out of superlatives to describe it, and were often lost for words. Bit like that for me too, so that’s one reason why this missive will be quite heavy on the photos. People have commented very positively about my photos of ‘the ice’, none of which I’ve altered or enhanced, but to be honest, if you can’t get a decent shot of an iceberg, or their intense ‘neon-like’blues, well, there’s probably not much hope for you!!

I’ve searched the web too, to make this missive a bit more informative, particularly to do with climate change, as the melting of the Polar caps is quite a hot topic (‘scuse the pun!). I’ll also do a bit of explaining about why icebergs look the way they do, and ‘iceberg behaviour’! So without further ado, here we go with words, pictures, a video (not sure if it'll work!) and websites…I proudly present to you, ‘THE ICE!

You can see here how, as this ‘berg has melted. The heavier end on the right has dropped in the water and exposed what action the water took on it whilst submerged. Typical patterns of water erosion with holes created and the smoothing of surfaces. Without this ‘tipping’, this would have been a fairly unremarkable block of ice methinks.

This is a close up of the hole in the photo above. Great textures, with beautiful blues and lilacs. Incredible to think that it’s just frozen water!

This is called a ‘bergy bit’ as it’s not big enough any more to be called an ‘iceberg’. It’s a good example of what the underside of a ‘berg might look like from all the water erosion and melting that create these rivulets and deep carvings. This bergy bit has completely rolled over from all the changes of balance that have taken place as it’s melted, and its underbelly completely exposed. Who knows how old this thing would be!

This is a ‘bergy bit’ being pushed away from the ship by a zodiac – they kind of get in the way. Smaller ‘bergy bits’ are sometimes called ‘growlers’ because of the growling/grinding noise they make as they scrape along the side of ships/boats.

“Did you know…” from http://www.antarcticconnection.com/ (By the way, this website has a fantastic online gift shop!)

The frozen water contained in a snowflake falling at the South Pole would take up to 50,000 years to reach the ocean.

This might give you an idea of how old the bergs might be according to their state of melted-ness.

This is one of my favourite shots. I love the highly regulated combed look contrasting with the more random deeper cracks above it. I also like how there are some craggy bits in the top R H corner that contrast with the general smoothness of the rest of the berg. Nice colours too, with a hint of green on the left.

Mother nature’s cellulite problem! Shame us gals can’t claim water erosion for this too eh?

It was ‘bergs such as this that added to the surreal nature of the place, particularly with the sun shining on the top of this one that makes it look plastic or like painted fibreglass, but with the surface looking like polystyrene. There were many occasions where those on board agreed that what we were looking at, particularly in the ‘Iceberg Graveyard’ where this was taken, looked like a movie set. Just too weird to be natural.

(From http://www.antarcticconnection.com/):
Icebergs come in all shapes and sizes. They can be categorized into tabular, irregular or rounded icebergs and their shape is usually an indication of their age. Antarctica as a rule has much larger icebergs than the Arctic. A large Antarctic iceberg may weigh 400 million tons, tower ten stories above the surface of the water and contain enough fresh water to supply a city of three million people for a year. After erosion from wind and waves, and melting from the warmer sea temperatures away from the Antarctic coast, the tabular icebergs become unstable and roll over to form jagged irregular icebergs, sometimes with spikes towering up to 180 feet into the air and with even greater protrusions deep under the ocean surface. Eventually, icebergs melt completely as they drift to more northerly, warmer water.

This is a good example of a tabular iceberg that has rolled onto its side. You can see the line towards the right end of the ‘berg was its waterline before it rolled, indicating just how much of it was under water. It reminds me of a tooth with long roots!

This one was an absolute whopper (and probably quite ‘young’ as icebergs go).


This is a good example of glacial ice. The dirt and debris is both ingrained in the ice as well as still stuck on top in a pile. I love this one because of the marbled effect.


Some good examples of the erosive elements and the incredible natural sculptures that they create…

Looks like a cloud on the left of the bird (a Skua)

Taken by another passenger on board, we nicknamed this ‘berg ‘The Cathedral’.

The view from where we camped – early sunset, 10.49 pm

…2 minutes later.

And the colours…

This was the only iceberg I saw that had a green colour/reflection.

Some info from http://www.antarcticconnection.com…

· With 98% of its surface covered with various forms of snow and ice, it's no wonder that the continent of Antarctica attracts "cold weather" scientists from all over the world. Basically, Antarctica is a snow and ice "factory" with ice depths on the Polar Plateau reaching 15,000 feet (the continent's average ice thickness is 7,000 feet). Thus, one of Antarctica's most important resources is its ice. It is said that Antarctica's ice accounts for 70% of the world's fresh water. Some people have considered towing icebergs from Antarctica to parts of the world in need of fresh water.

The Antarctic Ice Sheet
The Antarctic Ice Sheet is a thick, ancient sheet of ice with a maximum depth of nearly 3 miles (15,000 feet). It is the iceberg 'factory' of the Southern Ocean. This icesheet contains over 5 million cubic miles (30 million cubic km) of ice. The weight of the Antarctic ice is so great that in many areas it actually pushes the land below sea-level. Without its ice cover Antarctica would eventually rise up another 1500 feet (450 m) above sea-level. The Ice Sheet is very gradually moving, in this case towards the sea in a radial pattern.

· Antarctica's location as the southernmost continent presents a unique situation in terms of weather and climate. The Antarctic polar climate boundary -- the 50° F (10°C) isotherm for the warmest month -- encompasses about 12 percent of the surface of the globe, an area twice as large as that of the Arctic. It includes all of the Antarctic continent except the extreme northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

In the interior regions, extremely low temperatures, several months of complete darkness, fierce winds and blowing snow combine to make life virtually impossible. On the Antarctic Peninsula, temperatures are milder, yet snowstorms and gale force winds can persist for days or weeks on end. Most of Antarctica is covered with vast areas of snow and ice which reflect about 75% of the incoming solar radiation. Winter temperatures are also influenced by latitude, elevation and by the shortage of sunlight during the Antarctic winter. In fact, the coldest temperatures are usually during late August before the return of the sun.

LAND OF EXTREMES


"Antarctica is the coldest, highest, windiest, driest, and iciest continent on earth"

Coldest: -129° F at Vostok, July 21, 1983 (World low temperature record.) 

Highest: Average elevation 8200 feet (2500 meters).

Windiest: Gales reach 200 mph on Commonwealth Bay, George V coast.

Driest: Average precipitation is less than 2 inches per year.

Iciest: The thickest ice found is in Wilkes Land, where it reaches a depth of 15,669 feet (4,776 meters ).

Why is Antarctica so Cold?


Several factors combine to making Antarctica one of the coldest and least hospitable place on the Earth:
• Unlike the Arctic region, Antarctica is a continent surrounded by an ocean which means that interior areas do not benefit from the moderating influence of water.
• With 98% of its area covered with snow and ice, the Antarctic continent reflects most of the sun's light rather than absorbing it.
• The extreme dryness of the air causes any heat that is radiated back into the atmosphere to be lost instead of being absorbed by the water vapor in the atmosphere.
• Antarctica has a higher average elevation than any other continent on Earth which results in even colder temperatures.
Antarctica can be classified as a true desert; in the interior the average annual precipitation (in water) is only about 50 mm (about 2 in).

Yet, it is the home to many animals. These are some of the ones we saw:

An Adelie penguin

A Leopard Seal

Other kinds of seals.

Sea Ice (from http://www.antarcticconnection.com)

During the winter, the size of Antarctica doubles as the surrounding sea water freezes, effectively blocking heat transfer from the warmer surrounding ocean. Ice cover doubles the area of Antarctica each year -- extending the continent to approximately 30 million square miles. Pack Ice or Sea Ice
In winter the sea around the Antarctic freezes (sea water usually begins to freeze at 28°F or -1.8°C) eventually covering an area larger than the continent itself. Ocean swells and wind break the ice into large pieces termed pack-ice that move under the influence of wind and currents. (Fast-ice is sea-ice that is held fast to the continent.) Pack ice can change in a matter of hours from being open and navigable to densely packed and impassible. There are distinct stages in the transition from sea water to sea-ice. First, crystals form on the surface of the brine creating an oily sheen known as grease-ice. This further evolves into a slush known as frazil-ice.The sea-ice gradually thickens as more and more water from below freezes and as snow falls from above, but it is by no means a continuous mass.

Over time salt is gradually leached from sea ice into the surrounding ocean to the point where the water from melted sea-ice is quite drinkable. Melt water from old sea ice and icebergs was the main way early Antarctic ships were able to replenish their water supplies.

From NASA’s website http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/index.php

You can also check out a pretty cool animation of Antarctic sea ice as it grows and retreats, logged over a couple of decades at http://nsidc.org/sotc/sea_ice.html

Climate Change

So, this brings me on to the hot topic (‘scuse the pun!) of Global Warming, or more accurately described as Climate Change. Our expedition leader talked about this on our return to Argentina, and explained that ‘Climate Change’ is a better way to describe the changes on our planet, because it incorporates the broader history of our planet, which has had many climate changes over its millions of years. The consideration of our planet’s history may help to reframe current debates to go along the lines of ..”well yes, there is evidence that our planet is getting warmer, but would that have happened anyway, and how much have humans accelerated it?” I, personally think that the holes in our ozone layer are results of human activity, but I haven’t looked into it, so have no basis for my opinion!

But now I’m confused…
Our expedition leader went on to talk about there being less sea ice now than before, and how this impacts the Antarctic eco system. Pretty much everything in Antarctica lives off krill, and as well as this being the main food source for Antarctic wildlife (which are enormous!), humans are now trawling billions of tonnes of it out of Antarctic waters, unregulated (one of the downfalls of Antarctica having no single governing body). Krill feeds off the algae that grows on sea ice; so, you can see where this is going – if there’s less sea ice, there’s less food for the krill and less krill for the Antarctic wildlife. The situation is made worse by but unregulated krill trawling. A very concerning state of affairs I think. Now, here’s where I get confused – before starting this missive, I thought I should get my facts right about Antarctic sea ice’s advance and retreat, and every website I looked at said that instead of there being a reduction in sea ice around Antarctica in winter, it’s the same since records began. In fact, there’s evidence that Antarctic sea ice is actually ‘growing’ in winter to cover a larger area. The animated sea ice link I listed earlier will show this, and the diagram below shows warming and cooling around the Antarctic continent over 50+ years.

This shows that warming has definitely occurred, quite significantly, around the Antarctic peninsula (where we went), so perhaps that’s what our expedition leader was referring to during his presentation.

I’m not sure what to think now, but I guess regardless of the conflicting information I have, I should take up our expedition leader’s advice of making the effort of finding out where the fish I buy actually comes from. Look into sustainable fisheries, and support those who are doing the right thing and not raping the ocean. Apparently, a little searching though Google, and asking the right questions to your fishmonger can help you to ‘think global and act local’, and make a difference in protecting this incredibly vulnerable eco system that we still know very little about, and that relies upon the 28 countries involved in its governance to all agree on the same thing.

If you care about it, I’d like to suggest you investigate sustainable fisheries, whichever hemisphere you live in, and make responsible consumer choices.

Well, I’ve ended on a political note, but that’s part of the power of the place. It also nicely leads into my next missive topic, which will be ‘The Wildlife’. See you then!