Icy Shore

Portage Lake off Turnagain Arm has an icy shoreline formed by ice floes from the Portage Galcier. Turnagain Arm is off the Cook Inlet, between Anchorage and Seward, Alaska

"The ice has a blue cast, typical of Glacier Ice which is formed under the weight of countless snowfalls which squeezes out most of the air, leaving dense, compact ice. Sunlight, or white light, is made up of all the colors of the spectrum - with each color having a different amount of energy. In regular ice, like the ice in your freezer, the air bubbles scatter the light - creating the white appearance. When sunlight strikes the glacier ice, the lower energy colors are absorbed by the ice and only the blue color, which has the most energy, is reflected back to the eye!"

This shoreline was seen during our bus ride from Anchorage to Seward to board the ship ms Ryndam.