WATCHING ICEBERGS

IN CERTAIN TIMES OF THE YEAR, we can witness tall, stately masses of glacial ice and snow floating off the northern and eastern coastlines of Newfoundland as they journey on the currents and waves of a warming Atlantic, and to their final dissolution. Some have broken away from glaciers in Canada’s north, but most are from the giant ice sheets of Greenland where the miles deep inland ice flows inexorably to the coast, calving its wayward offspring into the sea, just as they have done for thousands of years. Many icebergs [from Ger. berg— “mountain”] floating past the Newfoundland coast are small—the size of grand pianos—but larger ones are observed, some as big as a fifteen-story building and weighing up to 200,000 tonnes. And contrary to popular opinion, most icebergs are not shaped like “ice cream cones”, with 90% of their mass below water sharpening to a point. Icebergs are formed by the contest between the force of gravity and the icy structure’s innate buoyancy.* Gravity pulls down on the berg while the crystalline structure of the ice pushes it upward. Water expands when it freezes making it about 10% less dense and therefore lighter, hence the 10% ‘tip’ above the water’s surface. This is also the reason ice forms on the water’s surface in winter and doesn’t sink—again, water’s special properties cause it to expand when it freezes, unlike other liquids (example: liquid helium, nitrogen, alcohol). Sea water, into which freshwater icebergs calve is denser because of its high salt content, which adds to the buoyancy of icebergs. However, another factor determines which part of the berg will be above water, and that is how balanced it is with respect to its centre of mass. An irregularly shaped iceberg can sway and flip in wind or currents as gravity pulls most of its underwater. For example, an “ice cream cone” shaped iceberg sitting vertically in the water is unstable and prone to overturning by wind and waves, melting, and sub-surface currents. Most icebergs would ‘overturn’ this configuration to float on their side, which is a more stable position. It still would have about 9/10s of its mass below water’s surface.¹ The “bummock”, or underwater mass, tends to be older and denser ice, thus the greater weight of an iceberg is subsurface. [The above water portion of an iceberg is called the “hummock”. Ed.]

 “An iceberg, just like anything else that floats, will always displace a volume of water equal to its weight. Ice is about 89% as dense as seawater, so that’s the fraction of an iceberg’s volume that must be submerged to displace its weight in seawater. Only 11% will float above the surface. The depth of an iceberg will be related to its shape. A thin, flat iceberg will not be very deep because not much of it will be above the surface. But a taller, rounder iceberg will have a greater underwater depth in order to keep to the “11% above the surface” rule.” (Quora)

 

ICEBERGS THAT FLOAT on their sides are known as “tabular” icebergs. [from Latin—tabula: “board”, “tablet”] These are large, flat masses of ice that sheer off a glacial ice shelf as it calves into the sea. They can be hundreds of feet deep beneath the surface and miles long. The most famous one is the recently formed “A23a”, an unfortunate name for a massive, Antarctic iceberg that is almost 1500 square miles—the size of Greater London. “Non-tabular” icebergs are much smaller and irregularly shaped, with “dome”, “spire” and “wedge” being the three main categories.) They are created from “tabular” icebergs calving their own icebergs as well as from glacial calving directly as the Greenland ice sheet breaks apart into the sea. White icebergs are made of newer snow and ice deposited on the inland ice field. Blue or green bergs are composed of glacial ice that has been compressed under great pressure and may be hundreds of years old. IN THIS CASE, the ice is not actually blue. Its density allows light to enter the ice deeper and be refracted to our eyes in a blue wavelength. In newer ice, the air and intact crystalline structure refracts back light in the white wavelength. Streaks of colours in icebergs represent rock material (i.e., dust), algal growth and dissolved organic matter that have blown onto the inland ice shield, impregnating the ice that forms there. As icebergs melt in the ocean, they release this nutritional matter and carbon that, in turn, forms micro-habitats for plankton and microscopic organisms to thrive and become food sources for larger, pelagic faunae surrounding the bergs as they are carried on the ocean currents.

 

IF ALL THE INLAND ICE SHELVES in Greenland and Antarctica were to melt and calve their ice into the sea, worldwide sea levels would rise by over 220 feet.

AND, OF COURSE, there are dramatic scenes of icebergs over-turning as they adjust to their changing centres of gravity. Most icebergs over-turn in their ‘youthful’ phase following their calving from the glacial ice sheet. As they stabilize and adjust their balance, they float with the current, conveying a sense of solidity and permanence. Which is deceptive. Over-turning events, when they are observed, surprise and sometimes frighten as the mass of blue-tinged bottom ice lifts from beneath, and overturns and rotates the “hummock”, or surface ice, into the water, creating a new form for the ten percent of the berg that will remain above. This is the life cycle of an iceberg—to grow inland, perhaps with centuries of snow compacting into ice, then a journey to the coast to break free of the land, to melt and change form, evolving from water into ice into water again. They are majestic, imposing, constantly changing, and ephemeral. So it goes.

 

Cheers, Jake.

_________________________________________

 

* The buoyancy of an iceberg is due to the unique properties of water that expands when it freezes.

 

“The density of water is 1 g/mL, or 1 g/cm³. Ice has a density of approximately 0.92 g/cm³. Ice has a crystalline structure, and the molecules are spaced farther apart from each other than in liquid water. Since there is only a small decrease in density of ice compared to water, [Approximately 10% less dense] there is a small upward net buoyant force, and a small amount of the ice remains above the water surface. An object with very low density will sit much higher on the surface of the water.” (Quora)

 

 

 Fire and Ice

 By Robert Frost

 

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

 

 

 

POEMING AND ROAMING.

 

            🍸

A DRUNKARD’S

EPITAPTH

"Funnily!

I’ve Luved Hup

To You’re

Epecations."

 

CRUSADE

Outside my window

In the street

Are the sounds

Of drums and laughter,

And other campaigns.

 

A HOTTENTOT’S DREAM

Sun and rain,

green fields and cattle grazing.

A village waking.

Cook fires smoking,

Children playing.

 

Then the rattling sounds

of infernal machines.

 

Sun and rain.

 

WE CARRY OUR WOUNDS 

LIKE SWORDS

You know you’d just harry them—

any or all that come your way.

Like a terrier at a rat,

you’ll wring their necks

limp between your jaws.

Soon they’ll give up,

defeated or deformed,

usually both.

They’ll stay or else move on.

Also, usually both.

And so, it’s just as well

You’ll close the blinds,

close the day off from the night.

Then you’ll sit as still

and close as you can,

biting down hard

until your teeth crack.

 

It’s better this way,

better for all concerned.

Even for those who are not.

 

SINCE YOU WENT AWAY

Since you went away,

It’s long I’d meant to say:

That earth does sim’lar seem

to wend a likewise way.

 

PEANUT GALLERY

After the rainstorm,

An eclipse of moths

gathered to laugh

at Butterfly, who floated

disarrayed

amid the fusillade 

of water raining down

from the dunking trees.

Battered, bent,

brilliant and bejeweled,

with cloud-soft eyes

and wind-kissed wings,

she deigns one flick

of her proboscis at them,

then flits, like a crimson leaf,

up the airy stair

into the pool of sunlight,

and is gone.

 

ISLE OF CATS

They move about

in great mystery

and I am filled

with their silence.

Yet, they remain

indifferent

to my presence.

Cats! 😸

 

 

RUSSIA’S demand that Ukraine (or what’s left of it) adopt neutrality as part of its constitution to ensure no future NATO armies or munitions would be emplaced within its borders got me wondering about Austria, neutral since WWII, and how that country came to adopt such a status. So, here's a short and far from complete history of Austrian neutrality:

DURING the 1930s, Nazi-supported political parties in Austria campaigned for the reunification of German peoples under the banner of an expanded Germany. At the time, there was considerable turmoil and economic distress within Austria, that gave rise to a homegrown, fascist government, the “Fatherland Front”, which tried to maintain Austrian independence. But, the country faced growing pressures of assimilation from neighbouring Germany. “Anschluss” (‘joining’, or ‘connection’) of the “Volksdeutsche” (ethnic Germans outside Germany) with the motherland was a decades-long ambition for German nationalists that was realized in March 1938 when the German army entered the country unopposed and incorporated it into Nazi Germany.

AFTER 1945, Austria was declared the first “victim” of Hitler’s war of aggression, despite it being culpable in war crimes carried out by Germany as a whole. Cold War politics found Austria divided into four zones of influence between the victorious Allies (the USSR, the USA, France, and Great Britain), and it remained a hotspot of intrigue and espionage in Europe. Vienna, isolated in the USSR’s occupation zone, also was divided among the four victorious powers, like Berlin.

THERE was a consensus among the occupying powers that Austria would be given its sovereignty someday and that the expensive deployment of armies in the country would eventually end. Negotiations began in 1945 but it took years to resolve Austria’s future, with a major bone of contention being the Soviet’s confiscation of Austrian assets from within their zone. Gradually, a treaty formula was reached which stipulated Austrian neutrality “on the Swiss model”, along with guarantees of no future Auschluss, no foreign armies on its soil, and to never join an alliance (NATO, Warsaw Pact). With the signing of the “Austrian State Treaty” of May 1955, the occupying powers withdrew their troops, and a neutral Austria was able to join the world community as a free, democratic, and sovereign nation. On 15 December 1955, Austria became the 70^th member of the United Nations. Without the promise of perpetual neutrality, it is unlikely such a status for Austria would have been achieved.

 

IN EUROPE DURING WWII, several nations opted to be neutral or non-aligned* including Sweden, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal, and several “micro-states” such as the Vatican. Today, only Switzerland, Austria and Malta are officially neutral. (Recently, Finland⁺ has joined NATO and Sweden soon may become a member, as well.😟) In 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted political debate within Austria about whether it should join NATO as a security measure against Russia. However, recent polls show over 70% of the population remains in favour of neutrality, putting any move to join NATO on the back burner.

 

Cheers, Jake______________________________________

 

* A “non-aligned” nation is one that “does not support or depend on any powerful country or group of countries.

+ In April 2023, Finland was granted membership in NATO. For decades, it had been a neutral neighbour of Russia, enjoying trade and peaceful cross-border relations. In recent years, domestic politics saw the rise of a pro-Western government in Helsinki which made the decision to join the military alliance. In response, Russia is establishing military bases along the 1300-mile long border it shares with Finland, under the newly-formed “Leningrad Military District”. The district’s name is a pointed reminder to Finland of how seriously Russia would view any buildup of NATO forces along its borders. 

Leningrad, of course, was where Russian defenders held off invading German troops for months during WWII until the siege was finally broken when Hitler’s armies withdrew in advance of the Russian counteroffensive. Over 800,000 civilians died as a result of the siege and blockade. Leningrad was renamed St. Petersburg in 1991. 

 

 

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