SYLVIA PATTON - 2019 - 2021 - CALENDAR EXTRAS

  As some of you know, May 5 is my birthday! This blog post is late because I was busy celebrating! As such, the photo for May is always one of my favorites - often my most favorite! This year is no exception. I found this one intriguing partly because it is clear; and most icebergs aren't!       It's time for Icebergs 101 .      Most icebergs are made of glacial ice. Glaciers are formed by snow falling and accumulating year after year. Air bubbles trapped in the ice turn it white. As more pressure is applied to the snow that has fallen (by more snow falling) and as time goes by, the air is pushed out of the glacier making the ice denser and denser. This causes some light to be absorbed, and some to be reflected, particularly at the blue end of the spectrum. Hence that beautiful blue ice you see is very old and very dense.  Other minerals ground into the glacial ice can cause different colors, but basically if you see blue ice, it's old ic...

           Back in February I described the ice fields outside of Illulisatt and told you there was another  month's photograph that came from the same area.  And, Voila! here it is.  I won't duplicate the ones that missed the cut from this area, but you can review them in February's blog post.            I particularly like the textures in this  photograph.  What do you think? See you next month! Comments and emails are welcome :-)) 

MARCH 2019        March's  image was captured in Buchan Gulf, Baffin Island. This 22 mile long gulf was carved by glaciers which left steep coastal cliffs as high as 2000 feet. I was fascinated by the designs of the glaciers as they met the sea.  In addition to the stunning views, we saw a lot of wildlife in the gulf. We saw numerous narwals, orcas, and a few polar bears. The narwals were numerous, but too far away to photograph, with the exception of two who became polar bear lunches. Lunch by the water. Find the narwal! Polar bear retrieving narwal carcass from the water to see if there wasn't just one more bite!

                                                                  FEBRUARY 2019 Ilulissat has a population of 4453, and is the third largest settlement in Greenland. It's the most visited tourist destination in Greenland due to its proximity to the Ilulissat Icefjord, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. It is well deserved! Ilulissat literally means "the icebergs", and its name comes from the fact that the Icefjord is the most productive glacier in the northern hemisphere. And what do glaciers "produce"? Icebergs! Like 20 billion tons of icebergs calving and moving out of the fjord every year.  Hog heaven for me! We got to cruise among the icebergs in a small fishing vessel, and the light that morning was spectacular. The whales were enjoying frolicking among the icebergs as well. The problem...

January's photo was taken in Inglefield Bredning, which is a fjord in northwest Greenland.  This area is where a lot of the research on Arctic climate change is occurring, and an area where narwals summer. We saw narwals, but we were never close enough to get good photos of them. A staff member was kind enough to put the below photo in the shared folder. Here is a great video of them using that long tooth! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHAc65Vwwnk

                The cover shot was taken at 78.51 degrees North - the northernmost point in our journey. We almost made 80 º North! But the ice said "NO"!                                                                At the top of the map below. The calendars are ready for distribution. Look for it in your mailbox in the next week or so, if you are not lucky enough to be living in LA! If you do  live in LA, I hope to be seeing you soon, calendar in hand.    

One suggestion was to get a closer look at the texture of the Greenland Icecap. Check it out!