Intense Blue Ice Cave - Antarctica

Blue ice is formed by compression of snow in glaciers. Air bubbles are squeezed out by the pressure.

We saw this iceberg cave whilst sailing between icebergs in a Zodiac boat in the Gerlache Strait, just looking to see what we could find. One iceberg had a couple of crabeater seals resting but this blue ice cave was easily the highlight. The day was overcast and this brought out the colours of the ice.

The Gerlache Strait, 64S 62W, is wider and east of the Neumayer Channel.

1/160s at f/13 ISO 100

Neumayer Channel

The Neumayer Channel, 65°S 63°W, is 16 miles long and about 1.5 miles wide on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula. Wiki link here. It separates Anvers Island from Wiencke and Doumer Island, part of the Palmer Archipelago. This photo was taken at 2300 local time, with sunset that evening at 2350. To me, with the wildlife, these were the types of scenes that I had come to see.

The ripples in the water were created by our boat moving slowly through the channel, I think partly so we would enjoy the view and also to push carefully through the sea ice. There was little wind so it was cold outside but not really cold if you had most of your gear on.

A larger version of this photo has been uploaded here and can be found in colour at PSC. It will also be found shortly framed in an art gallery in Fulham. I hope there will be some punters...

Handheld 1/40 at f/10, ISO 100 and circular polarizer

Tabular icebergs and sea ice

Very moody photo that was taken as our boat was entering the Drake Passage on the return to Ushuaia; the southern most city in the world on the tip of South America. It's a two day crossing at this point and can be pretty uncomfortable as this is the Southern Ocean.

These tabular icebergs are formed when ice fractures off an iceshelf and floats away and can be immense. The sea ice around the icebergs are formed when smaller icebergs calve off the larger one, the shockwave from the ice falling into the sea pushes smaller ice fragments out into a ring.

I like this from the stormy feel of the clouds.

24mm ISO 200 1/40 f/14

Just joined redbubble and some of my antarctica landscapes are there feedback welcome on my images!