Antarctica is home to some of the most incredible vistas and unusual wildlife but one of the strangest sights to be found in this winter wonderland comes in the form of striped icebergs.
You might think that the coloured stripes are man-made, however, it is actually a natural phenomena that is caused by different types of water freezing together. Iceberg’s color is also determined by how it interacts with light according to Daniela Jansen from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. These enormous shards of ice are primarily formed out of freshwater. The white colour of the iceberg is caused by little snowflakes and air bubbles frozen inside the glacier ice. These bubbles and snowflakes reflect the sunlight turning an iceberg into a white spotless surface.
But sometimes when the iceberg cracks it can be filled with seawater which doesn’t have any white particles inside. The frozen seawater also known as marine ice becomes intertwined with glacial ice creating this stunning dance of white and blue colours.
Jade green icebergs
The colour of these blocks of ice depends on the amount of organic matter inside. The seawater that is filled with algae and iron oxide gets trapped inside the iceberg creating beautiful jade colour.
Antarctica is an amazing place with huge varieties of wildlife that and vast frozen landscapes. However, these stunning frozen structures might soon be gone. Each year the Antarctica goes through dramatic transformation due to Global Warming.
Sources: JGR Oceans Journal, antarctica.gov.au
