Icebergs themselves are amazing natural creations. They are formed when snow falls on the already icy land on the shores of the Antarctic continent. The snow never melts and eventually there is so much it begins to pack down and form ice. That ice eventually begins sliding into the sea ? thus, an iceberg is born. Most icebergs display only 10% of their total mass above water while the other 90% remains beneath the surface. It takes hundreds upon thousands of years for an iceberg to form to the sizes we usually see pictured today.

By now you have probably seen pictures of the amazing striped icebergs floating around the Internet. At first glance, one might think that these phenomenal visions are merely the creation of an overzealous student with a knack for using Photoshop, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Some quick research revealed that the rumors were actually true. Striped icebergs had actually been seen and documented, mostly appearing in the waters south of the equator in the Antarctic. Striped icebergs have been spotted in a variety of colors, including brown, black, yellow, and blue. The process by which the stripes are formed is almost as fascinating as the idea of them forming to start with.

The first striped icebergs were photographed by a sailor known as Oyvind Tangen. He was a researcher on a ship touring the waters over 600 miles north of the Antarctic. He and the rest of his crew went on to discover a myriad of these amazing sites floating throughout the ocean waters.

The British Antarctic Survey describes the creation of stripes on an iceberg. In colder areas like the Antarctic, ice crystals begin to form under the surface of the water. Those crystals then attempt to rise to the surface of the water but instead hit the bottoms of the shelves known as icebergs. They adhere to the ice shelves and begin to form new layers. Anything that was between the ice crystal and ice shelf at the time the crystals rise and adhere becomes trapped between the new and old ice layers.

As aquatic wildlife evolves, the deceased animals eventually disintegrate and break into smaller pieces of material. These pieces contribute to some of the blue and green striped icebergs that have been documented. Blue stripes may be formed when water fills cracks in the iceberg and refreezes quickly without air bubbles. Green stripes are also caused by algae particles that become stuck between the ice particles and the ice shelf..

Other icebergs have presented with black, brown, and yellow stripes. If a sheet of ice slides towards the ocean waters it will pick up dirt and particles from the ground. Those particles stick to the ice and are sealed between the new layers of ice to form their own colorful stripes.

Regardless of how the stripes are formed, these icebergs are viewed with wonder and awe by anyone who has the fortunate experience of coming across one. Let?s hope these amazing natural wonders don?t become the next victim of global warming.

See more photos of Antarctic striped icebergs.

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