Alaska 2007—Tracy Arm: The Ice Kingdom

Tracy Arm is a Norway-like fjord (New Zealand folks says the place looks like Mitford Sound) with two tidewater glaciers, Sawyer and South Sawyer Glacier, feeding into the narrow passageways of this submerged canyon.  Marvelous crystalline icebergs are the result. The blue, blue color that you see here is real, caused by compression of the ice under pressure inside the glaciers, so that air bubbles disappear, and only blue light is refracted from the ice. The ice takes on endless, fantastic shapes.

 

 

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DetailDetail of the terminus of Sawyer Glacier. Like most Alaska glaciers, the glacier has receded dramatically in recent decades.