If you are accustomed to diving in warm water, surrounded by tropical fish and other beautifully colored creatures, then the idea of intentionally plunging into frigid waters, right alongside some of the biggest glaciers on the planet, might seem completely counterintuitive. These incredible sheets of ice are intriguing to dive; plus, they play a vital role in the planet’s health. Let’s take a closer look.
All About Ice Shelves
When you visit Antarctica, Greenland, or Canada, where some of the world’s best ice diving can be had, and you approach the ice shelves for the first time, what you’ll see is a gleaming white and blue series of towering ice cliffs that contrast beautifully with the icy water around them. In warm weather, they may be calving, or releasing chunks of ice; in this case, you won’t be able to get too close since the possibility of injury or even death is great. In cold weather though, you can get up close and explore the smooth undulating surface of the ice beneath the water’s surface.
Thick, floating platforms of ice that form when glaciers or other large ice sheets flow down to meet the ocean’s surface, Ice shelves range from about 100 to 1,000 meters thick. Their thickness, as well as their connection to glaciers, differentiates them from standard sea ice, which tends to be only about three meters thick in most places. In addition, the ice that forms these shelves is ancient – areas of the Larsen Ice Shelf, which fronts Antarctica’s Weddell Sea, are estimated to be between 2,000 and 12,000 years old. Antarctica’s Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf and the Ross Ice Shelf, which is the world’s largest body of floating ice, may be even older.
Ice Shelves and Ecology
As Ice shelves interact with sea water, calving and melting when water warms slightly, and growing to a certain extent during cold weather, they help moderate glacial melt. When glaciers lose their ice shelves, they succumb to global climate change much more quickly. This is troubling for all of us, since the loss of ocean ice will undoubtedly change the way we live our lives, and it is troubling for all marine life as well, as the ice shelves and glaciers at the poles cause cold water to sink, effectively driving the ocean currents that are essential to all life on earth.
Diving Ice Shelves
While it is theoretically possible to dive any of the planet’s ice shelves, the Ross Ice Shelf is currently one of the easiest to access, even though getting to Antarctica requires a significant investment of time, money, and effort. Redundant gear, expertise in ice diving, and rock-solid physical constitution are just a few of the things that will help you enjoy exploring this icy wonderland, which will only ever be seen and experienced by a very small percentage of divers.
Though at first ice shelves often appear to be barren places, they and the freezing waters that surround them are home to a wealth of marine life. Depending upon where and when you dive, expect to encounter everything from brightly colored jellyfish to emperor penguins.