Icebergs

Icebergs and ships have a famously uneasy relationship. Icebergs rise up out of the ocean like mesas and rocks in the desert. Hiding their mass beneath the surface; six times what emerges above the water is hidden below. Because icebergs are much more than they appear, the general rule for ships is to avoid them.

There are a lot of icebergs in Antarctica. Every single drop of snow that lands on Antarctica remains here until it fractures off as an iceberg and floats North toward the world.

Icebergs are mostly white in hue, but some have areas of brilliant blue (an oddly tropical turquoise) and rare bits of black ice bob in the water. Under pressure of snow the ice becomes denser, reflecting blue first, and then the entire spectrum.

Cold slows the pace of many things: molecular movement, corrosion, metabolism, but icebergs are not sluggish monoliths. After several hours of tromping around Cuverville Island, home of the largest Gentoo penguin colony on the Antarctic Peninsula, we took the last zodiac back to the ship. The ice had moved in while we were ashore, and the zodiac struggled through the quickly closing bergs. Ice moves quickly in Antarctica, and together with wind, they rule the seas.