While traversing the seas off of eastern Antarctica in 1988, glaciologist Stephen Warren came upon green icebergs floating in the ocean. “We never expected to see green icebergs,” said Warren, noting that a deep blue hue — not emerald green — is commonly observed in these chunks of ice.
Over three decades later, Warren and a team of researchers have put forward an explanation for these rarely seen icebergs’ green hue. Their hypothesis, published Monday in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, argues that tiny iron-rich rocky particles, similar to flour or dust, are the culprits. Specifically, this finely ground-up rock, aptly named “glacial flour,” gets trapped in the ice on the bottom of ice shelves — the ends of glaciers that float over the ocean — ultimately lending to the ice’s deep green appearance. When the icebergs eventually snap off, the fresh bergs carry the verdant hue. Read more…
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