Ice and Glaciers

Drangajökull Glacier

And how do icebergs get that blue color anyways?

The one glacier up in Greenland that puts more ice into the global ocean than all the other glaciers in the northern hemisphere combined is the Ilulissat Glacier.

But anyway, off to the world of ice.

And the same glacier today.

And to the right hand side of us was this great Khumbu Glacier.

But this understates the seriousness of this particular problem because it doesn't show the thickness of the ice.

They're going to get to land.

And so I actually live in Canada now, so I've been visiting one of my local glaciers.

Icebergs are born when they calve off of glaciers or break off of ice shelves.

Late glacial period, I assume.

This is a view of base camp.

At the end of the Iast ice age, as the Iast glacier was receding from North America, the ice melted and a giant pool of fresh water formed in North America.

This lake has been formed in the last couple of years because of the melting of the glacier.

This is an aerial picture we did this year.

This is before they were separated

This is Argentina 20 years ago. Same glacier today.

They actually have these buses that drive up and over the lateral moraine and drop people off on the surface of the glacier.

Unlike sea ice or pack ice, which form when the ocean freezes, glaciers are made of fresh water.

This is what one of our cameras saw over the course of a few months.

So, here's another time lapse shot of Columbia.

The glacier moves but by inches.

As you see, it expands to the dark blue that's the annual ice in winter, and it contracts in summer.

There is a custom made computer that tells the camera when to fire.

This is the present day era, and that's the Iast ice age.

And so kind of thinking about scale, my most recent obsession is actually with glaciers of course.

The glaciers are actually leaving us.

Icecaps are melting, war in the Middle East,

Here's Lonnie with a last sIiver of one of the once mighty glaciers.

When it comes to Europe, let's set the scene a little bit.

Decorative Ice

Ice

like air is being let out of a balloon.

Does that mean no, you don't want ice, or no, you want ice?

That's outside Antarctica.

But imagine we're looking at an ice skating rink from above.

You notice that each tray holds the exact same amount of water, but has a different number of ice cubes that it makes.

Let's take ice because ice is easier to move

In Asia and Australia, there's lots of fascinating stuff, but I study the Ice Age, so it's what I know best.

That's equal to 20 feet of sea level, as is Greenland.

Another friend, Lonnie Thompson, studies glaciers.

Iceman?

Ice.

Get me ice.