![]() ![]() Sea ice is advancing towards the berg from the north. Since the supply of energy from the sun is so weak, the siege is over for this year. The iceberg only gets seven hours and 40 minutes of daylight now, and soon the darkness will swallow it up completely. It has done a few pirouettes, and only 65% of it is left. We left a GPS tracker as a passenger, so we know that the iceberg has travelled 60 miles, and is now about 30 miles south of where it was in August. That's how I remember the iceberg, and that's the side of it you'll see if you watch the programmes. So they were snoozing away, not at all bothered that their chosen holiday home was moving, tilting, melting, breaking up and giving a TV production team and some scientists severe logistical headaches. The summer is a lean time for them, as they wait for the sea ice to come back so that they can hunt. We had thought we would be lucky to see one or two, but the iceberg turned out to have a healthy population of these huge carnivores. We sailed round it, living life just on the wrong side of the edge, and peering hopefully over the top of the cliffs like a dog eyeing up a loaded dinner table.Ĭurious polar bears peered back. The iceberg made its own fog, so we could only see a little way into the centre. Gentle mounds were separated by valleys, and these led down to waterfalls of meltwater cascading into the ocean. It looked like a mini version of the South Downs, carved into ice. We steamed around the berg until we found lower cliffs, and suddenly the icescape behind was revealed. The ice edge towered over us, vertical, angular and utterly spectacular. Our home was a small research ship, minuscule in comparison to the impregnable ice fortress. We had come to spectate on this oceanic siege, and to learn its rules. These break-up events were sudden, loud and violent. The ice is fighting a losing battle along its edges, as warm ocean water eats into it and then mini-bergs break off the weakened front. ![]() Once an iceberg is released from its parent glacier, its time is very limited. This iceberg was a dynamic battleground, floodlit by 24-hour daylight. It's one of the Petermann ice islands, and three months ago I was there, helping to study and film it for BBC2's Operation Iceberg.īack in the summer, things were different. This iceberg is at 69.2N, 65.6W right now, floating in peace as we all go about our busy, bustling lives filled with people and cars and telephones and decisions. Imagine this forbidding, serene, massive place. The only sound comes from water lapping against the ice, and a lone seal swimming nearby. Imagine the desolation of the Arctic environment around it, getting harsher as winter approaches. Imagine it floating quietly in dark ocean waters, somewhere between Canada and Greenland. Imagine a solid sheet of frozen water 3km across and 100m thick. ![]()
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