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If you picture an iceberg, what color do you see? White, am I right? Well, natural events are showing us the existence of a black iceberg! Recently, thanks to a marine observation, this huge black piece of ice was seen in the
Labrador
coast which scientists are in awe of. This is unusual, but the melting of polar ice and climate change could be behind the black iceberg. This opens a window for environmental science and new scientific theories on its composition and origin.
Many phenomena are happening concerning polar ice
and every single one of them are surprising and a chance to keep researching about the environment. So, let’s know more about this interesting story.
First of all, what’s an iceberg?
This is a huge piece of ice coming from a glacier and when it separates from the glacier, the iceberg is floating in the ocean. What we see is not the whole iceberg, 90% of its mass is underwater which can cause confusion among people.
This should be taken into account because imagine you go sailing and, all of a sudden, you find an iceberg, you have to know there’s more below the surface. Think about the Titanic, whose famous tragedy was due to an iceberg crash.
Finding… a black iceberg!
May was the month when an important finding was made. Near the Labrador coast, a completely black iceberg showed up in the sea and a new study was started.
This was a rare situation for scientists and citizens who live in this area. What was remarkable about this finding was its color, of course, and its diamond shape.
A fisherman, the man who witnessed it
Hallur Antoniussen, an expert fisherman born in the Faroe Islands, was the one who saw this black iceberg for the first time. He has been fishing near the Labrador coast for more than 50 years, so he clearly knows what an iceberg looks like. That’s why he was confused when he saw this black huge piece of ice in the middle of the sea.
The day before finding it, he had already counted 47 regular icebergs in that place, so he was even more shocked. He explained, ‘’Not only was it completely black, but it also has a peculiar shape, almost like a diamond’’.
The reason behind the color
This is the most striking aspect of the iceberg and many scientific theories (and not scientific ones) give a possible explanation for the black color. Let’s start with the scientific ones:
- Some experts, like Lev Tarasov, believe it could contain ashes from a previous volcanic eruption. So, the color of the ashes would be seen from the outside.
- Others think it could be because it passed through a dark sediments area and it was created with soil, sand or mineral particles.
- Another scientific theory is that ancient ices sometimes may look darker than usual because they don’t have any air bubbles to reflect the light.
These seem like very reasonable theories, but, of course, people didn’t wait to expose their own theories. Most of them were joking about the situation, like the ones who said it could be a frozen mammoth inside.
What happens now?
There’s not much evidence of this finding because Hallur didn’t think of collecting a sample, so scientists can’t identify its exact composition. However, the fisherman was quick enough to take a picture to have at least this evidence. Therefore, scientists only have a picture to work with, but it means a new question for science and maybe the origin of further studies.
Once again, natural events are proving us wrong. We know icebergs are white, here comes nature to show the opposite. Now, we have, at least, one black iceberg which can lead to more new things. For now, it’s nothing to worry about, it’s just a peculiar situation for us. What would you have done if you had experienced this?
