Blue Ice

I didn't expect to fall in love with ice on my trip to Antarctica, but I did.  I am completely obsessed with ice, icebergs and bergy bits now.  One of the most beautiful surprises of the trip was seeing blue ice.  Blue ice is hidden deep within glacier crevasses or is just floating around on and under smaller icebergs.

Why does ice turn blue?  When snow falls on a glacier it eventually gets compressed as it moves towards water.  While the snow is compressing and moving with the glacier, any air bubbles trapped in the ice are slowly squeezed out of the ice eventually making it clear.  The ice looks blue for the same reason that the water looks blue- the result of oxygen and hydrogen bonds that absorb certain light colors and reflect only blue.  If you'd like to read more check out wikipedia for a quick lesson.

Here are some of the photos I took of blue (and blue-green) ice!

This is an unedited photo I took when we were cruising through the Lemaire Channel.  This smaller iceberg is almost completely blue and really stood out against the glassy water.

A seal resting on some glacier ice extending out from land.  The blue green water below it shows the outline of how far the ice extends below the surface.

Close up of the blue crevasses in an iceberg like the one below.

This shows the deep blue crevasses in the glacier wall as well as some blueish icebergs floating in the water.

The color of the water above the iceberg below the surface reminded me of tropical waters.

Those tiny dots are penguins hanging out on the iceberg.

And here are some photos taken by other passengers: