Do you see any icebergs in Antarctica? You bet!
Antarctica consists of two major regions, west Antarctica of 6,475,000 square kilometers, and east Antarctica of 7,770,000 square kilometers. The entire continent, when superimposed on a map in the same scale of the USA , is larger than the USA. The 'area' of Antarctica almost doubles in winter, when most of the surrounding sea goes into deep freeze. The whole continent is covered with an unimaginable massive domed ice sheet, several thousend meters thick in various parts. At the seaward margins of the ice sheet, such as at the Ross Shelf, huge pieces break off and form table icebergs, flat affairs, some hundreds of kilometers long. The break leaves towering vertical cliffs rising up high several hundred hundred feet. Where the outward flow of the ice sheet is channelled into ice streams, i. e. zones of 'rapid flow', gigantic ice tongues project into the sea. Where mountain ranges restrict the movement, the ice is channelled into great valley glaciers or hanging glaciers.
Most icebergs are born either of the gigantic floating icefields or the glacier tongues. They form majestic magical sculptures, with unique subtle coloring, and unique shapes. All amazingly beautiful , especially the rare 'blue' icebergs, which are almost totally transluscent like giant Aquamarines. They float in silent travel, driven by wind and currents, with most of their mass hidden below the surface of the water. They diminish over time and melt into the sea, sometimes after running aground for a long time near an island or a coastal shoal. Then they may cover the sea surface with a mass of growlers and bergy bits.
Less than 5% of Antarctic is ice free. These areas include the mountain peaks of the Antarctic Peninsular and mountain ranges of the interior, 'dry' valleys, small coastal areas and a few islands.
We had ice pilot Captain Pat Tooney aboard to help 'wiggle' the ship through a maze of them. Captain Tooney is a retired Icebreaker Captain, who travelled the Arctic and Antarctic hundreds of times between 1954 and 1991 either as a Canadian Coast Guard Navigation Officer or - for most years - as Captain. He has not retired from the irresistible call of polar regions, however, and now works as ice captain on polar cruises with Holland America and other Expedition cruises as well as Russian ice breakers. Although proficient in ice breaking, here aboard this ship, he concentrates on ice avoiding.
He is Canadian and lives in Hamilton, Ontario. A competent and confidence inspiring man with a infectious sense of humor.
He mentioned that our Antarctic itinerary is only "Plan A", as it may change (and did) at any time, when conditions do not allow a ship of this size and capabilities to enter passages and bays plugged with ice. The Amsterdam is very maneuvrable (as we found out when we had to execute a few crockery smashing, reeling, ice avoiding course corrections) but not equipped with icebreaking re-inforcement. We did finish with "Plan D", average for Antarctica...some more on next blog on that.
I could write about and describe Antarctica for pages and more boring pages, but the Continent does not lend itself to being 'described', it has to be experienced. For today, only a few images, which fall short of showing the magnificence of Antarctica, but give a glimpse at least of different kind of icy fall out from it's immense supply.
