The Ice on Platform 2

Here for podium 2, this time we have found a nice and clear lump of ice.

When we find a lump of ice with such an appearance, there are like two possibilities:

The most likely thing is that this lump of ice is formed by frozen meltwater somewhere on the ice sheet or the glacier. A quite simple process that happens constantly. After all, there are enormous amounts of meltwater during the summer months and when the cold sets in, the meltwater rivers freeze into ice. We cannot put any age on such a lump of ice.

But when we are now faced with a clear lump of ice, I still can't resist telling you about a special old form of ice that is found deep down in the ice sheet - a form of ice that would look similar to the one we are facing here:

For podium 1, I explained that the formation of the ice on the ice sheet occurs when the snow falls - turns into firn - and down to approx. 80 meters deep, the firn turns to ice with embedded air bubbles. After this, greater and greater compression takes place and the individual layers are pressed thinner and thinner.

Down to a depth of approx. 1,500 meters the structure of the ice changes again due to the pressure. There is a change from hexagonal to cubic crystal structure and this makes it possible for the air molecules to move into the crystal structure - the bubbles disappear and this helps to change the color of the ice. The bubbles used to reflect all the sun's rays - now that the bubbles have disappeared and the crystal structure has changed, we see that the blue color spectrum of the light in particular is reflected and we therefore see ice with a beautiful blue colour.

The type of ice that I have just described can be between 12,000 and 120,000 years old. But it is not very likely that this is the kind we are dealing with here - and that is because this old type of ice very rarely comes out with a glacier.