Your eyes do not deceive you, that’s a black iceberg and it’s all the rage on the intertoobz. They’re actually not that rare. Discolored ice is function of nearby impurities, depth of formation, and the density/ air bubbles present. Click image for more info.
Black ice is like the first snow of the season: Everyone behaves as if this is something they have never before encountered.
Thought black ice was limited to Scottish roads and the vicinity of Alaskan oil spills?
For a second I thought this was going to be a thread about this :
http://climatecrocks.com/2013/01/06/sampling-greenland-the-dark-snow-project/
worthy crowd sourcing project to measure the darkening albedo of Greenland. Good idea.
I’ve driven on black ice and it is a scrotum tightening experience. One time I lost traction going up a steep hill on a narrow road and was forced to descend in reverse. That I actually got off the hill with an intact vehicle was a combination of luck and an instant decision to swap ends and go down front first. Anyone watching would have thrown away their hip flask.
Icebergs of such dark hue should not come as such a surprise as anyone who has shoveled a gravel driveway would know. Just put a bit of sand in your ice trays to see how that works. Then scale up your ice tray to a few hundred meters in height. Oh, and add more sand and throw in some gravel and whatever flora was present.
For a sampler, go here –>https://www.google.com/search?q=colored+icebergs&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
“Everyone behaves as if this is something they have never before encountered.”
Well, some of us haven’t! I’m from South Carolina, we have snow once in a while, and it melts within 24 hours. Why, the merest mention of the ‘s’ word sends everyone into a tizzy. And you know, it is only the infrequent nature and short duration of snow in the south that prevents massive die offs. We’re like turkeys, we stand there looking up with our mouths agape going, ” Ohhhhhh looook…it’s snoooowing!”
LOL, yeap Blue Aussie, that’s pretty much it in the south. Snow is like a fine, rare novelty to us :)