Glaciers 6-28-11

Glaciers: a large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or valley or spreading outward on a land surface. A glaciar is made by snow piling up with so much presure that it turns into ice and never melts in the winter.

 This Glacier is one where two glaciers come into one. The dark line in the middle is where they combined. You can see the other glacier on the right colliding with the big one on the left. This glacier is called Surprise glacier. This picture was taken from a couple miles away, but we paddled about 100 yards away from the base of the glacier. We slept right under it and it was hard going to sleep because every 20 minuets a chunk of ice would fall off it and make a big booming sound.

To get to the glacier, you have to paddle through a sea of icebergs and small melted chunks. Here, we are trying to get to the glacier without hitting the big icebergs. It is really cold and the water is silty and looks tropical, but it is so cold that if you stay in the water for longer than a minute then your mussles will freeze up.

 Icebergs come off a glacier that has hit the sea (tide water glacier)  and big chunk's fall off it into the water. In the water, they are 89% under water and 11% above. So you have to stay away from the big ones or your boat will get stuck on them. This iceberg has run aground and the flat part on top with the overhanging is the part on the surface. The tides pull the icebergs out of the bay as they melt.