Remember the film version of the ill-fated Titanic steaming toward a towering iceberg? That footage was likely our first introduction to these majestic but ominous ships of the sea. The year was 1912 and little research was available related to the icy behemoths. Much has been learned since that fateful day when so many people lost their lives. Despite their icy demeanor, icebergs are very much alive! They’re ‘calved’ from an active glacier, the birth announcement a thunderous roar upon entry into the sea which marks the beginning of a long journey. Over the course of their existence ocean currents will carry the roving ice palaces until their fresh water ice melts completely into the brine, a process that could take from weeks to years. The age of Greenland glacier base ice can be ancient: 150,000 years. In human terms, this gestation takes forever. By comparison to the lifespan of glacial ice, the floating ice castle lasts for just a moment in time, a flash of refracted blue, green and white ice comprised of large crystals and compacted snow sculpted into arches and spires. The berg topples and rolls as it becomes increasingly smaller until its cantilevered beauty shrinks, disappears into the dark sea. Follow photographer Michael Morrissey’s exquisite photos, crystalline canvases for your eyes. Interpret the life you see in these peaked ice islands and read just how close Michael came to understanding their unmitigated power in a subsequent ice expedition.
