Tuesday, March 18, 2008

I COULD HAVE DONE WITH THESE LAST NIGHT


These two icebergs were photographed by Oyvind Tangen on a research ship, 1,700 miles south of Cape Town and 660 miles north of Antarctica. The berg above with its distinctive stripes of dust, ground rocks and re-frozen melt water was 150 feet long and 30 feet high. The smoothness of this makes me think it's not just waterworn but has turned turtle.

This iceberg was 100 feet tall with this amazing blue stripe through the middle. The white colour of ice is due to the compressed bubbles of air which scatter light in all directions. The blue stripe is where part of the ice has melted in a crevice and re-frozen quickly enough to exclude bubbles.

6 comments:

Link said...

Comment attempt #234059847.

Arghhhhhh.

Nice pics--very nice.

Hot night, can't sleep. Wet the sheet, hold up with toes, allow to drop slowly onto body. Agony/ecstasy.

umpug indeed.

JahTeh said...

I was up three times to put icepacks on my spine to stop the legs cramping. Guess who went out in the heat, didn't drink enough water and forgot to take her calcium tablets for the past week. Tonight is bliss with a cold wind blowing from the south.

Brian Hughes said...

That second photo...you sure it had got 'Aquafresh' painted on the back of it?

Brian Hughes said...

That ought to have read 'Are you sure it hadn't got Aquafresh etc.' That's what happens when I don't get a proper night's sleep as well. Either way, it wasn't funny.

JahTeh said...

It might have been had I known what 'Aquafresh' was. I'm tossing up between a throat gargle or your daily tipple.

Brian Hughes said...

It's a brand of toothpaste...with a blue stripe down the middle.

Like I said...not actually funny. I think I think I'll stop writing now and down a few coffees.