Le Conte Glacier
Now that’s what I’d call an iceberg! It has it all - a deep blue color, massive size, and a toothy, dangerous look. We began our morning exploring icebergs and soon found ourselves drawn to this humungus hunk shown in the photo. The power of a telephoto lens shrinks the background space and makes it look like the Zodiac is perilously close to the ice, a dangerous place to be. Earlier in the day, one of the smaller bergs split with a resounding crack, and rolled into the water, writhed in its death, and began to self destruct by bouncing and shattering itself into cocktail ice. In the photo, the line on the ice above the Zodiac marks the high-tide melt line. Seawater, although colder than the air temperature, melts the ice by absorbing the cold much faster than air. The conspicuous blue in the berg is from the ice absorbing all of the colors except blue. The white is a result of air bubbles and cracks that scatter and reflect all wavelengths of the spectrum back to the viewer.
Glaciers that flow into the sea are called tidewater glaciers. This one is the farthest south of any in the Northern Hemisphere. Not long ago, this berg calved from the face of Le Conte Glacier. Tides carry these bergs along the fjord until many become stranded in shallow water. A local high school teacher has been taking some of his students here since 1983 to measure calving rates, advances, and other glacial dynamics. The Le Conte Glacier flows out into the fjord 45 to 60 feet per day, a relatively fast rate for many glaciers in this area. Starting in 1884, ships from San Francisco collected ice from here to take back with them up north. Peter Buschmann came to this area attracted by the fishing and readily available ice. He built a cannery in 1897 and the site later grew to become the town of Petersburg.
After lunch we explored his town. We experienced two different boardwalk trails through muskegs and forests and flew over stunning glacial scenery in floatplanes. Blue sky and warm temperatures added immensely to our activities before we settled into our evening dinner.
Now that’s what I’d call an iceberg! It has it all - a deep blue color, massive size, and a toothy, dangerous look. We began our morning exploring icebergs and soon found ourselves drawn to this humungus hunk shown in the photo. The power of a telephoto lens shrinks the background space and makes it look like the Zodiac is perilously close to the ice, a dangerous place to be. Earlier in the day, one of the smaller bergs split with a resounding crack, and rolled into the water, writhed in its death, and began to self destruct by bouncing and shattering itself into cocktail ice. In the photo, the line on the ice above the Zodiac marks the high-tide melt line. Seawater, although colder than the air temperature, melts the ice by absorbing the cold much faster than air. The conspicuous blue in the berg is from the ice absorbing all of the colors except blue. The white is a result of air bubbles and cracks that scatter and reflect all wavelengths of the spectrum back to the viewer.
Glaciers that flow into the sea are called tidewater glaciers. This one is the farthest south of any in the Northern Hemisphere. Not long ago, this berg calved from the face of Le Conte Glacier. Tides carry these bergs along the fjord until many become stranded in shallow water. A local high school teacher has been taking some of his students here since 1983 to measure calving rates, advances, and other glacial dynamics. The Le Conte Glacier flows out into the fjord 45 to 60 feet per day, a relatively fast rate for many glaciers in this area. Starting in 1884, ships from San Francisco collected ice from here to take back with them up north. Peter Buschmann came to this area attracted by the fishing and readily available ice. He built a cannery in 1897 and the site later grew to become the town of Petersburg.
After lunch we explored his town. We experienced two different boardwalk trails through muskegs and forests and flew over stunning glacial scenery in floatplanes. Blue sky and warm temperatures added immensely to our activities before we settled into our evening dinner.
