Incredible Icebergs [37 Pics]

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Lightning Strikes Iceberg Sony PSP Wallpaper

Perito Moreno Glacier with a backdrop of black mountains.
Perito Moreno is the most beautiful, interesting and, consequently, the most visited glacier in Argentina. Another gorgeous place where icebergs are "born." Ana_Cotta

 

River runs under the ice
The photographer notes, "This river came out from under the glacier. The compact blue ice in the background was lit up by the pure sunlight." Matthew Hoelscher

 

Briksdalsbreen Glacier where icebergs break off
Briksdalsbreen, in Norway, is part of west arm of Jostedalsbreen National Park -- Jostedalsbreen is Europe's largest land glacier. Vicrogo

 

Antartica where penguins play Angell Williams

triggerpit.com — Icebergs are large pieces of ice that broke off from a snow-formed glacier or an iceshelf. Where a glacier meets the sea, humongous chunks of ice break off from the face of the glacier; this is known as calving. 

Click here for this fascinating gallery:  http://triggerpit.com/

100-year-old Scotch pulled from frozen crate

From: http://www.physorg.com/

August 13, 2010

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In this Feb. 5, 2010 file photo released by Antarctic Heritage Trust on Feb. 8, 2010, one of crates of Scotch whisky and brandy is pictured after they have been recovered by a team restoring an Antarctic hut used more than 100 years ago by famed polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. One of the crates of the Scotch whisky that was trapped in Antarctic ice for a century was finally opened Friday, Aug. 13, 2010 but the heritage dram won't be tasted by whisky lovers because it's being preserved for its historic significance. (AP Photo/Antarctic Heritage Trust)

(AP) -- A crate of Scotch whisky that was trapped in Antarctic ice for a century was finally opened Friday - but the heritage dram won't be tasted by whisky lovers because it's being preserved for its historical significance.

The crate, recovered from the Antarctic hut of renowned explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton after it was found there in 2006, has been thawed very slowly in recent weeks at the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island.

The crate was painstakingly opened to reveal 11 bottles of Mackinlay's Scotch whisky, wrapped in paper and straw to protect them from the rigors of a rough trip to Antarctica for Shackleton's 1907 Nimrod expedition.

Though the crate was frozen solid when it was retrieved earlier this year, the whisky inside could be heard sloshing around in the bottles. Antarctica's minus 22 Fahrenheit (-30 Celsius) temperature was not enough to freeze the liquor, dating from 1896 or 1897 and described as being in remarkably good condition.

This Scotch is unlikely ever to be tasted, but master blenders will examine samples of it to see if they can replicate the brew. The original recipe for the Scotch no longer exists.

Once samples have been extracted and sent to Scottish distiller Whyte and Mackay, which took over Mackinlay's distillery many years ago, the 11 bottles will be returned to their home - under the floorboards of Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds on Ross Island, near Antarctica's McMurdo Sound.

Whisky lover Michael Milne, a Scot who runs the Whisky Galore liquor outlet in Christchurch, described the rare event as a great experience.

"I just looked at this (crate) and honestly, my heartbeat went up about three paces. It was amazing," he said. "The box was like a pioneer's box with the wood and nails coming out," he said.

Although Milne said he'd give anything to have a taste of the whisky. "It is not going to happen and I am not going to get excited about it," he said. "But if there was ever an opportunity, it could be a wonderful one to have."

Nigel Watson, executive director of the Antarctic Heritage Trust, which is restoring the explorer's hut, said opening the crate was a delicate process.

The crate will remain in cold storage and each of the 11 bottles will be carefully assessed and conserved over the next few weeks. Some samples will be extracted, possibly using a syringe through the bottles' cork stoppers.

©2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Breathtaking Images of Frozen Waves

Written by Simone Preuss
From: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/

Photo: Tony Travouillon

All images by Tony Travouillon were taken at the Antarctic base of Dumont D’Urville.

Though spring is going by fast, there are certain parts of the world that are covered by snow and ice even during the summer months. In fact, it is so cold that even waves seem to freeze in midair. But can waves freeze over as word on the Intertubes would have us believe? Sorry folks, if you’ve thought yes then you’ve fallen prey to an urban myth.

Photo: Tony Travouillon

Photo: via ragingdebate

Photo: via delightnature

Frozen waves are actually formed over time in a process called glaciation. Yup, they are nothing but beautifully shaped glaciers found all over the world - the polar regions of course but also in the mountain ranges of every continent, even in the tropics. According to Wikipedia, a glacier is a “perennial mass of ice which moves over land.” On its journey, the ice gets compacted and uplifted in the process and, as seen in the images below, often gets shaped beautifully through constant exposure to the elements.

Photo: Tony Travouillon

Photo: Tony Travouillon

Photo: Tony Travouillon

And, quite contrary to intuition, the formations in the images shown here were formed through melting, not freezing. The downward parts on the ice that look like breaking waves are actually icicles, and the different colours are the result of how quickly the ice has frozen before melting: Rapidly frozen ice will look opaque while transparent ice is the result of ice frozen over time. Melting then produces the smooth, polished surfaces that remind us of waves.

Like a wave but…

Photo: Tony Travouillon

Don’t be fooled, this is a real wave:

Did you know that glaciers are the largest reservoirs of fresh water on Earth? They form the second largest reservoir of total water on Earth, second only to the oceans. Amazing, isn’t it? So what we call frozen waves or waves of ice are not only beautiful to look at but also important water resources crucial for human survival.

Photo: Tony Travouillon

Photo: Tony Travouillon

Photo: Tony Travouillon

If you want to know why ice can have different colours ranging from turquoise, green and blue to black, you will find the answer in our article on Stunning Marbled Ice Growlers.

Sources: 1, 2

© Simone Preuss

Icebergs carved by the forces of nature photographed off the coast of Antarctica

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk

These breathtaking photographs capture the natural majesty of enormous icebergs sculpted into architectural forms by the wind and rain of Antarctica. Photographer Steven Kazlowski, 40, witnessed these sights as he toured the world's most southerly continent on a 62-foot engined sailing boat

Picture: Steven Kazlowski / Barcroft

Click here for the full gallery: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Shackleton's whisky stash yields more than expected

Master blender expects the hundred-year-old Scotch to be heavier and smokier than today's whisky.

By Emily Stone — Special to GlobalPost

From: http://www.globalpost.com/

 

Sir Ernest Shackleton left behind two cases of Scotch whisky after a failed attempt at the South Pole. (Emily Stone/GlobalPost)

CAPE ROYDS, Antarctica — Preservationist Al Fastier spent three long, cold days laying on his stomach in Antarctica earlier this month, chipping away at ice that had accumulated under the 102-year-old hut built by Sir Ernest Shackleton. His goal was to retrieve two crates of whisky that the famed polar explorer brought down with him — and then abandoned — after his unsuccessful 1908 expedition to the South Pole.

After getting the two crates out, Fastier and the archeologist working with him peered through the wall of ice that remained and saw another box. They kept chipping away with drills and hand tools, and soon two more crates appeared. In all, they recovered three cases of Charles Mackinlay & Co. whisky and one of brandy, as well as one crate of brandy labeled Hunter Valley Distillery Limited Allandale. He could hear liquid sloshing in the crates and peeked into one box with a missing board and saw a bottle with an intact cork inside.
“It was a fantastic outcome,” Fastier said Saturday from Scott Base, New Zealand’s Antarctic station. He’s program manager with Antarctic Heritage Trust, the New Zealand nonprofit charged with conserving the building.

The first two crates were discovered four years ago when Fastier and his team cleared out a century’s worth of ice under the hut because it was damaging the fragile structure. The boxes were frozen to the porous rock in the foot and a half of space beneath the hut and couldn’t be safely removed without the specialized drills the group brought this time.

Perhaps no one was more excited to learn of the bottles’ safe retrieval than Richard Paterson, master blender at Whyte & Mackay, the Glasgow company that now owns Mackinlay.

“Absolutely fantastic, unbelievable,” Paterson said of the news. He’s been lobbying since the crates’ original discovery to get several bottles of the whisky — or at the very least some samples — so he can learn what a Mackinlay from that era tasted like. Company records show it was a 10-year-old blend. He expects it to be heavier and smokier than today’s Scotch.

If he gets a sample, Paterson is considering issuing a recreation of the Shackleton whisky. The company recipes have long since disappeared, he said, so these bottles may be the only way to discover what that vintage Mackinlay tasted like. If the corks have remained intact, whisky experts agree that the spirit should taste much as it did when bottled.

Obviously, the fact that the whisky has been entombed in Antarctic ice and belonged to Shackleton make this a more exciting discovery than just any old 19th century booze.

“It’s not just that a case of whisky has been found, that’s so bloody boring,” Paterson said.
Scottish whisky author Charles MacLean agrees. Hundred-year-old bottles of whisky aren’t terribly rare. Three or four go to auction each year, he said. He couldn’t speculate what a bottle of this whisky would be worth and said the price will be set by how much someone is willing to pay.

“The Shackleton provenance is, of course, priceless,” he wrote from his home in Edinburgh.
MacLean explained that Charles Mackinlay was one of the earliest and most prominent Scotch blenders, and Paterson is one of today’s most respected blenders, having earned himself the nickname “the Nose.” So a recreation by Paterson of Mackinlay’s whisky would attract interest.

It seems possible Paterson will get his chance, despite an international treaty that governs all historic artifacts found in Antarctica stipulating that they remain in place unless they need to be removed from the continent for conservation reasons. Indeed, Shackleton’s hut is maintained as a museum, with its 5,000 artifacts on display for the roughly 900 tourists who come through annually and interested history buffs who tour it online.

Nigel Watson, executive director of Antarctic Heritage Trust, said, “it’s not beyond the realms of possibility” that Paterson would get some of the whisky, but the organization is not rushing toward a decision. Its first priority is to safely conserve the crates, bottles and liquid. The boxes are in varied conditions, some of them cracked in spots with ice built up inside. The group expects it will take a couple months or so to come up with a conservation plan.

“They’ve been under the hut for 100 years,” Fastier said. “I think another couple months won’t make a difference.”

Antarctic Iceberg

flickr.com — Photographer: Bill Adler