Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1906-10-18
ENORMOUS WEIGHT OF
GREENLAND ICEDERCS
Appalling Masses Of Ice Are d
Menace to Ocean Navi-
cation.
HOW THEY ARE FORMED
Being Mo Chance for snow to Mel:, It
Gradually conseais Tin Topping
from Own Bulk It Glides
Into the Sea.


Into the Sea.
From the HSew York Herald.
IVsry spriiig the north .Ai.4AJic ocean
witnesses d strange w.crd sight. Hum
Glels I'll huge il oergs, liberated from the
loas Winters imprisonmeni in tt.c frozen
north. start Oh tnelr }0uruc. southwark.
Sli,At the Acct moves day al-er day. night
after night. into tine bgoa'! ocean. ear
rice ty the irresistible drcric currents even
asainst adverse Winds. southwark. eyer
southwark tney so, down die silent coast
OF Labrador, sairtins the banks oil Ncw-
ioundland and into The path OF the ocean
liners. or else they DRIFT into the Gulf
stream and are carried back north again
toward the coast OF ireland.
Sometimes they move Oh against both
wind and ocean current. because these
are huge craft, with their immense hulis
sinking 1850 feet or more TO some under
current of the ocean which drives them
along counter to the shallow upper stream
of water. 1t Is these big fellows of the
iceberg community that are such a
menace to navigation.
The smaller ones melt AVA before they
reach the lanes of ocean travel. But these
big monsters withstand the ever-intensify-
ing heat of the sun and the beating of
wind and wave until they have passed far
south OF the latitude of New York. Some
of them have been known to wander as
far as the Azores islands ard even farther
to the latitude of Cape Hatteras, n. c.
River OF Solid Ice.
Whence come these ponderous masses of
ice? At first one might think that they
Were large pieces of the frozen Arctic,
which is enormously imagined to be Il
solid ocean of ice. As a matter of fact
the Arctic. ocean is never frozen over TO a
depth of more than six or eight feet. while
a good-sized iceberg will easily measure
LOCO to 2.Uo feet in thickness.
To be sure, the ocean ice is crushed and
broken by the fierce polar gales and the
Ice slabs are piled up in heaps which often
reach respectable dimensions. But these
Ice piles are properly called ''floebergs.'
not iceberss. a genuine iceberg is very
different in appearance from a fioebcrg
and can boast of a much prouder lineage.
1t is not of salt water origin but is pure
fresh water ice. Instead OF being the prod
uce of a single polar winter it can pciAt
pack hundreds of years to its birth at the
top of a lofty mountain.
Those of us who chance to remember our
physical geography lessons mood not be
told that iceberss are produced by glaciers
and that in tracing the history of an ice
berg one must first describe these wonder
full rivers of solid ice which flow down the
mountain side, relieving the excessive bur
dens of snow.
How iceberg Is Formed.
Up in the mountains of Greenland there
Is little chance for snow to melt and TOW
off as it does in these regions. instead
1t Is blown down or slides in avalancnes
off the highest peaks into q pockel OF an
upper valley of the mountain. Here it
gradually collects. as in a reservoir. 10 a
depth OF hundreds and even thousands OF
feet and the weight o fthe snow is so great
that 1t is pressed into a mass Of so.id ice
not white ice. full OF air bubbles as we
commonly see 1t, bat ice that has been
squeezed until it is blue. actually an inGi-
go blue. because every particle OF ak Is
forced out OF il.
But the snow can not so on collecting
in this manner forever. or ii would event.
ually build up n mountain of infinite
height. In time the pressure will be suf-
ticiont to force IN arm of ice down through
a break in the walls OF the reservoir. The
arm grows larger and larger as the rescr-
voir grows deeper. Slowly. very slowly.
1t moves, not more than u few inches each
day. until ultimately it reaches the sea.
maybe fifty or more miles away.
Flows Like a Liquid.
In its progress to the sea it is Obliged to
follow the course of its channel. flowing
down the valley. around sharp bends and
down steep inclines. like Il river of water.
In some places where the bed drops sud
denly we have 4 glacier waterfall or cas-
cade where the glacier opens or. as some
one has put it. breaks its back" over the
precipice. But the yawning crevasse is
soon closed and the edges are frozen to-
gether. Moderate dcpressions and curves
in the course are taken without any break
in the glacier, the ice literally flowing like
a stream of water. and like a river it
flows faster at the center than along the
banks and in some places is damned up
ana curls over the obstruction like water
flowing over q dam.
For many years scientists We're at q loss
to account for the strange pnenomeaon of
a rigid substance Ike ice flowing as a
liquid. Three theories have been advanced
in explanation. but the one generally ac-
copied is that the ,ce actually meits where
1t is under the greatest pressure al curry s.
after which 1t freezes again as soon as it *
relieved of the pressure. This action is
called "regela ton
Roc> No tarrier.
A favor..e experiment in illustration If
the phenomenon of regulation IS to ,uy an
ioiclc or n block CT ice On a pair of sup
ports ard suspend a weight from the Ice
by means of an .ron wire. The w 10. owing
TO the pressure It exert; OF the lee. viii
gradually mel. IS way INTO the block. IN,
49, AsA--I 80 N0N' 81 tHS ~ AStZ0S u
Sether again above Il. so that ultimate
~ the wire cuts entirely through the ice
and yet leaves a solid block behind it.
1t is difficult to gain an adequate con-
ception of the enormous pressure exertei
by a glacier. Forced ahead by the weight
of millions of tons of ice and snow. it
grinds its way through solid rock. picking
up huge powders in its course and with
them crushing and tearing whatever i'm
pedes t. A glacier is one of the most
powerful forces we have on tbs planet
and the scars it leaves endure for ages.
We can still see on the rocks of Central
park. New York. ur:nistakable evidences
of a glacier which covered this city cuun-
less age ago-namely. the smooth, polished
rocks worn by the passage of the ice and
these peculiar parallel scratches made ny
rocks imbedded in the glacier. THIS hap
pened in the ice age, when all this part o.
the country was N a condition similar TO
that of Greenland.
Glaciers on the Equator.
However. glaciers are not confined 10
cold REGIONS. The ones we are most IA