The Ice ...
All of the photos on this page were taken in the Bransfield Strait
in November, 1995, while onboard the icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer.
November is early spring in Antarctica. We had expected the water to be
much clearer. We spent most of the time doing research aboard the ship
crashing through the loose brash ice or trying to avoid the large
bergs. The bridge has a sophisticated set of radar equipment that they
use to detect bergs in their path even in the dark. Scientists track
the largests bergs that break off of the ice shelf. The largest berg
being tracked as of this date is over 60 miles long.
Ice Everywhere:
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| Pieces of all shapes and sizes | A mixture of slush and ice |
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| A small bergey bit flipped by the waves | Ice as far as the eye can see |
Brash Ice: blown by the wind
Brash ice is a mixture of sea ice and the small floating reminants
of bergs that have blown out and been broken up in the ocean. The brash
ice accumulates along the shores of the Antarctic coast and the islands
along the penninsula. The ice is blown by the wind and the locations of
these floating aggregates of ice change daily.
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| Brash Ice from the Helo deck | Cutting through the ice: a view of the ship's wake |
The Bergs
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Cathedral Bergs |
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Caves eroded by the waves |
Jackson School of Geosciences»
Note: The photos and journals contained in this website were prepared by Steven Stevenoski, science teacher at Lincoln High School in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin