Interesting facts about icebergs

Posted by staff / June 6, 2014

I have a thing about icebergs and this is the time of year to be thinking about them. One of the best places in the world to see them is the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. There, you can see them off Cape Spear just outside of St. John’s: North America’s most easterly point or, along Iceberg Alley which is essentially the entire north east coast of the province.

Magnificent, they are formed when glaciers in Greenland calve them in to the sea. The icebergs we see in Newfoundland are typically about a year old by the time they get here and are usually melted within a year after that. Newfoundland sits between Ireland and Virginia essentially and is at the same latitude as Paris and Seattle. Perfectly situated for icebergs, forming a bit of a geographic scoop through which the icebergs glide on their journey south with the currents.

90% of the icebergs will come from Greenland’s glaciers, among the fastest-flowing glaciers in the world. They can flow at up to 7 kilometres in a year. It’s this movement that spawns the massive chunks of ice that float down past Newfoundland.

The best estimates are that the icebergs are 10,000 years old. Some are estimated to be 25,000. Enterprising breweries grab “roamers”, or little ‘bergs and use their water in their beers. Could be the only place in the world where you can drink water that’s so old!

A really cool internet site to peruse is the iceberg-tracking site: Iceberg Finder.

Well worth the journey. And you’ll likely see puffins and whales at the same time.

Full story here: Newfoundland and Labrador.

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