Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Extreme Ice



I just finished watching a great documentary called "Extreme Ice" on PBS. It is a joint effort between Nova and National Geographic and documents changes to the Greenland Ice Cap through the work of a photographer and scientists working on the ice cap. They documented entire lakes, 40 feet deep and miles across, disappearing from the surface of the ice cap in 40 minutes. Then the photographer, James Balog, rappelled into the drain holes left behind to take spectacular photos of the resulting cobalt blue icescape. He described it as something like "frightening, beautiful, evil, and gorgeous." The complex feedback between melt water, sea water, and glacial flow as also discussed. If you have a decent internet connection you can watch it online at the link above. I would recommend it catching it however you can.

No comments: