Salads, Saints and 7 Other Iceberg Oddities

NatureFolkloreFact

May 1

Newfoundland is one of the best places in the world to see icebergs. Every spring these giant chunks of ice drift into view along the island’s northeastern coast.

Like snowflakes, each iceberg is unique. With so much variation, there’s a whole world of iceberg trivia. From weird words to strange smells to buried bones — the world of icebergs is a world of oddities.

1. The Lost Language Of Icebergs

Not every piece of ice that floats by Newfoundland is an iceberg.

By definition, an iceberg is a piece of ice that rises at least 5 metres (or 16ft) above sea-level. If it’s smaller than that, it’s not an iceberg.

Many icebergs in Newfoundland far exceed the minimum height requirement and, on occasion, can tower over communities. They are truly impressive but you shouldn’t feel bad for the ice that doesn’t get to call itself a berg. Smaller pieces of ice get pretty cool names.

A piece of ice, that rises 1-5 meters above the waves has a cute, diminutive name — a ‘bergy bit.’

A piece of ice that rises less than 1 meter (~3ft) is most often called a growler. The name growler comes from the noise ice and waves make as they encounter these small, but dangerous pieces of ice.

In some parts of Newfoundland a growler is called a ‘roly poly’. At least it was a century ago. I’ve never heard the term in modern usage.

2. Pinnacle Tea & Bergy Beverages

Speaking of lost language, once upon a time Newfoundland sailors enjoyed a cup of ‘pinnacle tea’. When a schooner ran out of fresh water, the cook sometimes collected bits of iceberg to fill the kettle and brew "pinnacle tea” — tea made using iceberg water.

Pinnacle tea is largely a thing of the past but consuming icebergs is definitely not. These days you can buy iceberg water, iceberg vodka and iceberg beer made from bergs harvested off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.

From personal experience I can tell you that a small piece of iceberg ice used instead of an ice cube can make any drink special. Iceberg ice is full of tiny pockets of air. As the ice melts, the air is released and the resulting bubbles make any drink mildly effervescent.

3. Icebergs Can Get Noisy

A fizzing sound in a glass of water is the least of it when it comes to iceberg noise.

When icebergs split or calve they can make booming noises that reverberate across the landscape. It’s impossible to predict when an iceberg will split or topple, so planning to be nearby when it happens is close to impossible.

It all comes down to luck.

Though imperceptible to humans on land, icebergs make a racket underwater, too. As they grind along the bottom of the ocean they make noises for hours. They make a different set of sounds when they bang into each other.

In the 1990s, researchers listening for underwater volcanic activity in the southern Pacific recorded a mysterious, loud sound that was detected by hydrophones thousands of kilometers apart. It was called ‘the bloop.’

The Bloop was finally identified in 2005 — it was the sound of an iceberg. More specifically it was the sound of an iceberg cracking and breaking free of a glacier.

4. Tip of The Tongue

When an iceberg breaks free of a glacier, its coming off the tip of its tongue. An ice tongue is a piece of glacier that extends into the ocean. Much of it melts but about 20% breaks free and drifts away as icebergs.

5. Icebergs Take The Scenic Route

Most of the icebergs seen off Newfoundland are chunks of ice broken from the glaciers of western Greenland.

Icebergs don’t take the direct route from Greenland to Newfoundland. They are well-travelled piece of ice.

Once breaking from the glacier icebergs drift north toward the arctic before being carried south on the Baffin Island Current, getting picked up by the Labrador Current and finally transported past Newfoundland.

It’s a surprisingly long trip. Many of the icebergs off Newfoundland have been drifting for 2-to-3 years and have travelled more than 3000 km.

6. Icebergs Can Get Colourful

One of the reason icebergs are so beautiful is their colour. They are a combination of bright white and rippling blue. It’s stunning… and totally the fault of physics.

Why are icebergs white and blue?

The majority of and iceberg is compressed glacial snow — a bunch of individual snowflakes and pockets of trapped air. Snowflakes are highly reflective. As the sun hits an iceberg, it bounces off the crystals and through the air spaces. It’s very reflective and absorbs little light. It bounces almost all wavelengths of light outward where it can be seen. Together, all wavelengths of light look white, so an iceberg appears white.

Except where it doesn’t.

Icebergs appear blue where the ice is compressed or made of frozen melt water. This ice, with fewer air spaces is less reflective. More of the red end of the light spectrum is absorbed by this kind of ice, the blue wavelengths escape. Because the blue wavelengths escape, the ice looks blue.

So, the arrangement ice crystals and air is responsible for ice appearing white and blue icebergs.

Icebergs sometimes come in other colours too but in most of these cases it’s because they are no longer just water. Icebergs calve, fracture and roll — that means a piece of the berg that might have once been dragging on the ocean floor can suddenly be on the surface and visible to people. The bit dragged on the seafloor can be stained with sediments, plants and debris and can appear brown, black grey… or the colour of anything it encountered on its journey.

6. Icebergs are Time Capsules

On top of being well-travelled, icebergs are old.

Many of the icebergs that float past Newfoundland were frozen more than 10,000 years ago and may have existed at the time of sabre-toothed cats, wooly mammoths and dire wolves.

It means the water and air trapped in icebergs pre-dates any of the industrial pollution caused by humans.

7. There Have Been Bones

While icebergs may have been frozen before industrial pollution, it doesn’t mean you won’t find the occasional impurity.

In 2007, there was an iceberg spotted off New-Wes-Valley, NL with bones protruding from it. It looked to be part of a spine and rib cage. It’s entirely possible these bones are not from the ice age and were somehow deposited in recent history — like by a polar bear having a snack.

CBC News covered the story. Click through to see the pictures

7. There are Salad Smells

The world’s most famous iceberg was on Newfoundland’s Grand Banks in April 1914 — right in the path of the Titanic. The ocean liner sailed into it, and earned a place in history.

In the aftermath of the sinking there was an inquiry and the Titanic’s lookout, Reginald R. Lee testified. He was asked if he knew there was ice near the ship and he responded, “You could smell it.”

There’s a long standing claim that some seasoned mariners can ‘smell’ ice. A lot of these claims probably have nothing to do with scent and are just a colourful way of saying they have a good read of the environment and can predict when they are in ice strewn waters.

Maybe not all of them, though.

Some people have said icebergs smell like cucumbers (and that the scent may be due to dissolved minerals.)

I don’t know. I’ve never caught a whiff of cucumber on the spring breeze but, then, I’m not a seasoned mariner.

On the topic of produce, icebergs don’t smell like iceberg lettuce either. In fact they have no real connection to iceberg lettuce at all. Crisphead lettuce began getting called iceberg lettuce in the 1920s when it was discovered that it would survive long distance travel if it was packed in ice.

9.There Have Been Iceberg Miracles

Well, maybe.

Icebergs are a bit like the Rorschach tests of the sea. Sometime people find images in their irregular shapes. As I write this, a whole swath of Newfoundland is excited about a phallic shaped berg off Harbour Grace.

I’m not sure that one could be described as a miracle but, in the past, people have seen symbols of their faith emerging in ice.

The Madonna Iceberg

The most famous incident was in 1905.

Michael Francis Howley, the Archbishop of Newfoundland, looked from the Basilica toward St. John’s harbour. Outside The Narrows he saw an enormous iceberg. He was convinced that it looked like The Virgin Mary and was a sign from God.

You can read more about it at Like A Virgin: NL’s Madonna Iceberg or listen to the Product of Newfoundland Microcast episode (Season 1, Ep. 6)

A Saintly Sailor

There’s possibly a saintly connection to Newfoundland icebergs too.

St. Brendan, aka Brendan the Navigator, was a monk who lived in 6th century Ireland. Little is known about his life but much of what is known comes from the tales of a fantastic voyage he took to find the Isle of The Blessed, now often called St. Brendan’s Island. The stories were recorded in 900AD under the name Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis (or Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot).

In the 1.5 millennia since Brendan died, people have become fascinated by his story, looking past its fantastic, miraculous elements. They wonder if it could be the recording of an actual voyage ancient Irish seafarers made to North America.

Brendan’s Navigatio describes crystal columns floating on the sea. Some have wondered if the columns might be the first European description of Iceberg Alley?

You can read more about that here: St. Brendan: The NL Navigator?