Most icebergs are white…or they even appear blue.
But Did you know that there’s such a thing as green icebergs?
These icebergs aren’t just green, they are a beautiful shade of emerald green, and scientists
and explorers have been transfixed by green icebergs in antartica since the 1900s.
So what causes an iceberg to be green?
Well im gonna tell you in just a second but first, the intro.
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Mysterious green icebergs have been puzzling scientists for many years.
I mean, it’s a green ice berg.
Sure Russia has green snow right now, but the two phenomenons are not correlated.
The green snow in Russia is being caused by chemical pollution, and the green icebergs?
Well, lets just say scientists finally think they know why, and the reason, is natural
causes.
And no, the natural causes are not plant life.
Scientists used to think that the green colour was coming from dissolved marine plants and
animals that died a long time ago, floated around and get locked up in ice.
If that were the case, then the icebergs would actually be yellow, not green.
But if the yellow ice mixed with blue ice, that would make green ice.
As we all should know by now and if you do, Good for you for passing first grade.
According to a new paper, a team of glaciologists propose the idea that these icebergs are turning
green because they are serving up a crucial nutrient that supports almost all marine life.
And those nutrients are, iron oxides.
According to the paper’s lead author Stephen Warren from the university of Washington,
its like taking a package to the post office.
The iceberg can deliver this iron out in the ocean far away, then melt and deliver it to
the phytoplankton and microscopic plants that can use it as a nutrient.
Then the phytoplankton feed the larger animals, and it slowly goes up the food chain.
Stephen warren has been studying green icebergs since 1988.
He wasn’t all that surprised about the color of these bergs.
He was more surprised about how dense they were.
Unline normal icebergs, that are built from packed snow, the green ones don’t have any
airpockets.
No bubbles.
At all.
Which meant that these icebergs were special.
After analysing several of these icebergs in the 80s.
warren found out that the ice bergs didn’t break off a glacier.
Most icebergs break off and were actually once a part of glaciers.
These icebergs were formed when frozen water clings to the underside of the antartic ice
shelf.
Then in 2016, warren got a big lead on why these icebergs were turning green.
A team of oceanographers led by Laura Borreguero from the university of Copenhagen, tested
an ice core taken from the Almery Ice shelf in 1968.
At the bottom of this core, they found that the ice contained 500 times more iron than
the glacial ice above.
Rocks from antartica’s mainland contain iron oxides.
They are rusty or earthy in color.
As glaciers form over bedrock, they will grind the rocks containing the iron oxides into
a fine powder, which then finds its way to the sea.
From there, its believed that the iron oxide dust gets trapped under the ice shelf and
then becomes a part of marine ice, which is what cause the emerald color.
Iron oxide is actually very scarce in many parts of the ocean.
Its believed that these green icebergs might be the only way that microscopic plants and
phytoplankton can get their nutrients.
Emerald green icebergs are an essential part of ocean ecosystems.
And to answer the question everyone is thinking…no, you should not lick a green iceberg.
Ok guys that’s all I have for you on this, I’m gonna wrap up this video with some comment
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