Tabular Iceberg, Baffin Bay

As crossed from the wild Greenland side of Baffin Bay to the calmer Canadian side of the Bay, the waters smoothed and we started to see ice. Lots of ice.

This particular iceberg first appeared on the horizon as a white line in the distance. As we got closer both the on-board glaciologist and polar-hardened Russian crew started scratching their heads. Had they ever seen a tabular iceberg this big? Yes, but only in the Antarctic.

The best guess was that this had come from the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland and had slowly drifted down into the southern end of Baffin Bay.

The Akademik Ioffe pulled in close to the berg and then moved slowly along its edge until we reached one of the corners. The best estimates were that the berg was something like 2 miles long. We couldn’t see the top of the berg from the top deck of the Ioffe, so there was probably 50 to 70 feet showing above the waterline.

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