MS Expedition is still anchored where we were this morning. After lunch we go out on deck has gotten a little colder this afternoon. The wind is blowing from the glacier at the end of the bay towards us. As the wind blows across the ice it is like standing in front of your refrigerator with the freezer door open!
Even though it is colder we are excited to get back in our Zodiacs® and get a close-up look at this glacier, Fjortende Julibreen (14th of July Glacier)!
We actually walked on a glacier on Day 2 in Longyearbyen before we got on MS Expedition. We won't be walking on this glacier. We will be visiting the glacier on our Zodiacs®. This will be our first chance to get a close-up look at this type of glacier, called a tidewater glacier, which drops into the sea!
From our ship we can see that this is a HUGE glacier! This glacier is about 10 miles long and over a mile wide! This is not just one glacier. We can see that five other smaller glaciers have flowed together into this big glacier! We see lines on the top of the glacier that look like lanes on a highway. These are lateral moraines. These show us where other glaciers have joined the main glacier as it flows to the ocean.
As we prepare to board our Zodiacs® we have to wait for a few minutes because icebergs are slowing drifting by our ship and are blocking us getting to our Zodiacs®.
After the icebergs drift by we are finally able to get in our Zodiacs® and start heading toward the front of the glacier. The icebergs that we are zig-zaging around all came from this glacier. In the summer as the glacier slowly moves forward the front of the glacier will crack and pieces of glacier ice drop into the sea to make icebergs.
We see that some of the icebergs are popular resting places for the birds (Black-legged kittiwakes) the live at the top of the mountain peaks.
Many years ago the front of the glacier was a lot further into the bay than it is today. Even though the glacier has receeded it is still advancing forward. If it were not advancing the glacier would not be calving.
The front of the glacier has receeded but we see the sides of the glacier extend in front of the glacier along the edges of the bay. These parts of the glacier have probably not melted because they are not in the ocean and are covered with dirt and rocks which isulates the ice and keeps it cold. This dirt is actually rock pulverized by the glacier (glacial till) as it slowly grinds down the valley.
As we get closer to the glacier front we notice that even though the glacier is mostly white, there are several places on the front of the glacier where it is a very pretty blue color. The blue color is because glacial ice is denser than regular ice. Snow reflects sunlight so it looks white. Dense glacial ice absorbs every color of the spectrum except blue so the blue is the reflected color that we see. Less dense melting ice is looks white but the old dense ice is looks blue. The blue on the glacier front is where parts of the glacier have calved and exposed the dense ice behind the white melting glacier front.
We approach the glacier, but not too close. The minimum safe distance to approach a glacier in our Zodiacs® is 600 feet. We could see the glacier better if we got closer, but it is too dangerous! The front of this glacier is about the height of a 13-story building! In the summer big pieces of ice are always calving off the glacier! Imagine a 13-story building falling on you!
Not only do we have to stay away from the falling ice but when huge chunks of ice fall in the water they make a BIG splash and a HUGE wave! If the ice does not hit us the HUGE waves could tip over our Zodiacs® and dump us into the dangerous freezing cold water!
Even though we are a safe distance away from the glacier front it still looks awesome and a little scary, too! The large thundering sounds of the glaciers are sometimes followed by the sounds of splashing as large chunks of the glaciers fall into the water.
A thunderous roar suddenly startles us! Right in front of us a HUGE chunk of the glacier is falling into water! It is about the size of an 8-story building! As it hits the water it causes a gigantic splash and makes an enormous wave! Even though we are a safe distance away we still ride the wave that this massive slab of ice just made as it passes under our Zodiacs®! This glacier is beautiful but it can be frightening, too!
After a thrilling day of exploring Fjortende Julibukta it is time for us to turn our Zodiacs® around and weave our way through the icebergs to return to our ship and await another exciting day of Arctic exploration!
Day 5 PM 
