Iceberg Facts

Icebergs started as snowfall that over time froze and compressed, creating miles high blankets of Ice that are between 10,000 to 40 million years old.

Icebergs come from the melting of the Ice Caps of Greenland and Antarctica and from melting Glaciers.

Icebergs are chunks of Ice that have broken off the vast Ice Caps and Ice Sheets of Greenland and Antarctica and are floating free in the ocean. Some icebergs have broken off from glaciers, rivers of Ice that snake thru Mountains.

The Ice Cap of Greenland, if laid over the USA, would stretch from NYC to Miami and across to Chicago.

Antartica, the highest, driest, coldest, windiest, and brightest place on Earth is almost the size of the USA and Mexico combined.

The Ice covering Greenland is up to 2 miles high, Antartica ice is 1 to 3 miles high.

Why Are Icebergs Important?

Icebergs are like the Canary in the Coalmine ~ they show us that our polar regions are melting as a result of the warming of our atmosphere

The North and South Pole regions where most Icebergs come from are the drivers of our Climate. The poles are warming faster than the rest of the Earth and are the engine of change for the planet…Read more

Where Do Icebergs Come From?

Most Icebergs come from Greenland or Antartica as huge chunks of Ice break off the massive Ice Caps that cover these two continents and islands. As our climate warms the surface of the Ice Caps melt causing bright blue lakes and rivers to form in the Ice…Read more

To Understand Climate Change, We Need to Understand Greenland

More than a million years ago, snow fell on Greenland in the summer. Temperatures were low enough that it stuck, and the ice pack accumulated over the millenniums, eventually stacking higher than 10,000 feet and covering over 700,000 square miles. This frozen desert supported no life. Temperatures regularly ran dozens of degrees below zero, especially during the many months the sun declined to appear. As one 18th-century visitor recorded, the ice sheet was a frigid, deadly place that had “no use to mankind.” …Read more

1997 was ‘tipping point’ for ice caps around Greenland’s edges

The natural resilience of Greenland’s smaller ice caps ‘broke down’ around 1997, causing a rapid increase in their rate of decline. Until that year, the ice caps were able to contain and refreeze enough meltwater to remain stable, despite temperature fluctuations. However, it appears that around 1997 the ice caps’ deep snow cover became saturated with refrozen meltwater, breaking down that mechanism and causing mass loss acceleration – an effect that is irreversible. That is the conclusion of a study led by researchers from Utrecht University and published in Nature Communications on Friday 31st March…Read more

Earth's glaciers lost 9 trillion tons of ice. That's the weight of 27 billion 747s.

Nine trillion metric tons. That's how much ice Earth's glaciers lost in the 55 years between 1961 and 2016. An international team of scientists used satellite and direct field observations to conclude that Earth's glaciers have melted such a profound sum of ice in the last half-century. They published their report Monday in the journal Nature…Read more

What Worries Iceland A World Without Ice It Is Preparing

HÖFN, Iceland — From the offices of the fishing operation founded by his family two generations ago, Adalsteinn Ingólfsson has watched the massive Vatnajökull glacier shrink year after year. Rising temperatures have already winnowed the types of fish he can catch. But the wilting ice mass, Iceland’s largest, is a strange new challenge to business…Read more

Greenland ice starts melting over a month ahead of schedule

You might have heard about the exceptional heat this year in the northern hemisphere and around the world. March was just declared the second warmest on record globally

Records have been shattered in Alaska. Scotland hit 70 degrees in February. Winter warmth has torched the U.K., Netherlands and Sweden as well — coming on the heels of Europe’s warmest year on record. But they’re not alone.

Greenland is baking, too. In fact, its summer melt season has already begun — more than a month ahead of schedule…Read more

Antarctic Icebergs Play a Previously Unknown Role in Global Carbon Cycle, Climate

In a finding that has global implications for climate research, scientists have discovered that when icebergs cool and dilute the seas through which they pass for days, they also raise chlorophyll levels in the water that may in turn increase carbon dioxide absorption in the Southern Ocean…Read more

Scientists set sail on expedition to investigate 'Iceberg Alley' off Antarctica

The 5.4 million-square-mile Antarctic Ice Sheet is the greatest mass of fresh water on Earth. If it all were to melt, it would raise global sea levels some 220 feet. Searching for answers to how fast the ice might react to changes in climate, scientists are now studying how that ice reacted to past warm periods similar to today's…Read more

Research on Iceberg B-15A (Image 8)

Researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin install weather and global positioning systems instruments on iceberg B-15A. This was the first time an iceberg had been monitored like this, and the data will allow an unprecedented understanding of how giant bergs make their way through the waters of Antarctica and beyond…Read more

Quick Facts on Icebergs

Icebergs are pieces of ice that formed on land and float in an ocean or lake. Icebergs come in all shapes and sizes, from ice-cube-sized chunks to ice islands the size of a small country. The term "iceberg" refers to chunks of ice larger than 5 meters (16 feet) across. Smaller icebergs, known as bergy bits and growlers, can be especially dangerous for ships because they are harder to spot. The North Atlantic and the cold waters surrounding Antarctica are home to most of the icebergs on Earth…Read more

Icebergs can be emerald green. Now we know why.

Seen in stunning pictures from either of Earth’s Poles, icebergs are most often white-blue objects. But like an artist willing to experiment with whatever resources are available, nature is also capable of creating startlingly green icebergs, and they can be found only in Antarctica… Read more

The Big Thaw

"If we don't have it, we don't need it," pronounces Daniel Fagre as we throw on our backpacks. We're armed with crampons, ice axes, rope, GPS receivers, and bear spray to ward off grizzlies, and we're trudging toward Sperry Glacier in Glacier National Park, Montana. I fall in step with Fagre and two other research scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey Global Change Research Program. They're doing what they've been doing for more than a decade: measuring how the park's storied glaciers are melting…Read more

Aerial Photos Reveal Impact of Climate Change

It’s hard to wreck a continent you can barely get your hands on. Human beings typically do our worst environmental damage in the places we live and work—clear-cutting forests, strip-mining mountains. Antarctica, however, was more or less out of reach. No more…Read more

'Sleeping giant' Arctic methane deposits starting to release, scientists find

Scientists say they have found evidence that frozen methane deposits in the Arctic Ocean have started to be released over a large area of the continental slope off the East Siberian coast, the Guardian can reveal… Read more

The end of the Arctic as we know it

The demise of an entire ocean is almost too enormous to grasp, but as the expedition sails deeper into the Arctic, the colossal processes of breakdown are increasingly evident… Read more