Melting Kaleidoscope
Translucently blue glacier ice is found at the terminus of glaciers and is the oldest in the entire glacial system. It was falling as snowflakes on top of the glacier several hundreds of years ago and was compressed and transformed to ice. This process squeezes tiny air bubbles out of the ice that changes its color consequently from white to blue. At polar temperatures this process endures up to 100 years. In alpine glaciers, located in moderate temperature zones, this process however takes only to 3 to 5 years. During this metamorphosis, the young ice begins its gravitational journey through the glacier heading towards the valley. At the terminus of the glacier, often marked by a snout, the ice begins to calve from the glacier front and hence begins to melt. During the melting process numerous bizarre, rounded planes and edges develop. The light becomes refracted in all directions. This water was detracted from the global water cycle for centuries. Now it evaporate to water vapor or runs off with the meltwater stream towards the ocean.
August 2007
Canon 20D, Canon EF 24-105mm, f/8, 1/2 sec, ISO 100, tripod