In the Pack Ice

There are many terms used for ice, and MS Endeavour has pretty much seen it all on this adventure to the high Arctic Ocean. We have been making our way along an ice shelf for two days now, and the massive ice cliffs of Nordauslandet have been ever present in the distance. A few tabular bergs are floating around to the north, and several big blue icebergs have been calving off of the cliffs throughout the night. Today we are skirting the edge of the glistening pack ice, searching for wildlife. Approaching the jumbled white vista from open water, we encounter soupy grease ice, which is newly formed slush, kind of like a giant Slurpee®, which Endeavour slices through with ease. Grease ice gets a little colder during the hours of the midnight sun, and it starts to get knocked around by wind and currents, forming pancake ice. Between the grease and the pancakes can be frazzle ice, a very thin layer of clear, crisp ice that cracks like the delicate ice that forms on the edge of a pond in, say, Minnesota.

All of this ice which is derived from the ocean is frozen seawater, and if it is in a protected bay or a fjord, or up against an ice shelf, it can remain fixed to the land, or held fast to the ice. We call this fast ice. In the spring, first year fast ice breaks up into large, flat ice floes, and this is where we find polar bears out hunting for seals. If the drifting ice floes don’t melt by the end of their first summer, they become multi-year pack ice, and the Arctic has incredibly vast expanses of this strong, thick, overlapping ice. Captain Skog maneuvers Endeavour through the grease ice and the pancakes and the frazzle ice and the bergy bits of brash ice and even between the low-lying growlers. It is kind of like sailing through a giant margarita, complete with a salty rim on the edge of the glass! We can even break through most annual sea ice by following a lead, or crack in the pack ice, and make our way in to have a look at a polar bear, but the multi-year pack that is pushed and bonded together is tough stuff, so we usually steer clear of it and push onward. It is hard to go inside with the gorgeous purple and pink light reflecting off of this surreal “icescape”, but I need to sleep.

Nope, there goes another call over the PA system. Walrus ahead. Oh, and another bear. Get ready to break through some more ice! Hat back on and more film in hand, I’m headed back out on deck. I’ll sleep next week, and I’ll dream of ice…