3Striped Icebergs, Southern Ocean

Most often icebergs have blue and green stripes, but may be brown. This phenomenon often occurs in the Southern Ocean. Striped icebergs with multiple color bands, including yellow, brown, black and blue, are quite common in the cold waters around Antarctica. Icebergs are formed when large chunks of ice break off from the ice shelf and fall into the sea.

Because glaciers are composed of snow falling on Antarctica for millennia, the ice is made up of fresh water. Thus it turns out that the floating fresh ice interacts with salt water. Sea water is in contact with supercooled glacier also freezes, as if covering it with a crust. This top layer of ice formed from sea water contains organic matter and minerals. Lapped by the waves, and blown by the wind, icebergs can be painted with amazing color bands of different shapes and textures. Iceberg appears white because of the tiny bubbles trapped in the ice and the light-scattering. Blue bars are created when a crack in the ice shield filled with melt water, which quickly freezes. In this case, the bubbles do not have time to form. When the water is rich in algae, the strip can be colored green, as well as in other shades.

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