Uploads from haelio, tagged glacier, with geodata

Jökulsárlón

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:41:38 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

It was a photo of this glacial lagoon that made me want to visit Iceland in the first place. Despite all the beautiful sights we saw in the vicinity of Reykjavik, I was secretly longing for the day when we would make the trip East to to the Vatnajökull glacier. After a day long drive I remember spotting the floating icebergs off in the distance. We found a place to park and started snapping away.

The icebergs too have a story. They began their life as snowfall on the Vatnajökull glacier millennia ago. With thousands upon thousands of years of such snowfall piled on top, our iceberg-to-be was slowly compressed by the massive weight of snow. This compression pushed out the air from the snow resulting in a hard, compact ice. As the snow continued and the weight increased, the ice began to spread outwards as a glacier. Eventually this flow pushed our now ancient ice towards the Atlantic. On meeting the warm oceanic water the ice gradually melted and broke off to form icebergs (this is called calving).

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Tongues of ice

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 04:30:54 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

Another photo of Fjallsárlón this time showing one of the glacial tongues that populate the lake with water and icebergs. Tumbling down the mountainside in an S-shape, the glacier finally meets the lake at the far right of the image. Higher up the mountain you can see the peaks where the glacier begins as light snowfall. It's difficult to convey the sense of scale and distance in this frame. The curve in the glacier is many times larger than the entire lake that is only partially visible in the capture; and the distant peaks even larger still.

This photo was taken when on the way back to camp after hiking around Skaftafell National Park and although evening light is visible in the sky by the peaks, it was nearing 11pm.

A crop of a panorama made of 2 frames each shot on a tripod.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 70-200 f/4L IS

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Glacial terminus

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 03:51:26 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

The end of a glacial system often looks like this: small meltwater lakes, resurfaced volcanic ash picked up by the glacier over its millennia long descent, and a sandur further out leading to the sea.

This photo was taken about 300m along Svínafellsjökull facing down in the path of the glacier's retreat. Although not very clear, the plains in the distance is the massive Skeiðarársandur that stretches over a large part of Iceland's southern seaboard. Beyond that is the Atlantic ocean, although you might need to view the photo large to see it.

Can you spot the two hikers in the image?

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS

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Svínafellsjökull

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:40:39 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

It was a cloudy day but every now and then the wind would push them about just right, and the sun would play on the upper reaches of the glacier in a refulgent display.

Once again, you can see how the nature of the ice changes the further down the glacier you go. The foreground is still ice, despite the dark colour. It is a mixture of ice, ash and morraine (rock debris from when the glacier eroded the sides of the mountain). In sharp contrast, the ice and snow visible through the clouds is an unblemished white.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS

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Dirty ice

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:48:51 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

Glaciers aren't all blue and white! During the course of their long journey from mountaintop to the ocean, they pick up a lot of detritus.

In the case of the Svínafellsjökull tongue of the Vatnajökull glacier, you can see that part of the material digested on the way down the mountainside was volcanic ash (the dark veins in the ice).

This photo was taken at its very end and you can see the glacier itself in the background rising up to the sky. The scale in this image is very deceptive. This photo was taken about 20m above the surface of the water at moderate zoom -- the gash in the middle is about 60m high!

This photo is a blend of 3 exposures in a quasi-HDR way.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-105 f/4L IS

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Snæfellsjökull

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 05:16:07 -0800

haelio posted a photo:

It was our second day in Iceland and the first day out of Reykjavik. We spent the early part of the day driving up to this region in the far west of Iceland hoping to see the summit. Despite being around the area for several hours, hiking along the coast and watching the gulls and terns nest this was the only time we saw it, as the clouds parted just after 11pm.

At the time we had the cameras up on the tripods pointing hopefully Northwards. With a brisk westerly wind chilling us as we huddled around the back of the car eating canned tuna and bread we waited. Then the wind then blew a gap in the clouds past the summit and I rushed to my waiting camera and with tuna-strained fingers clicked away.

This is the Northern-most point on the globe I've been to. Behind me there was the ocean, and then nothing... no land until the Antarctic 10,000 miles of Atlantic away.

[20 June 2012] Of all the photos I've made, right now this is the one I am most proud of. I hope you like it!

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 70-200 f/4L IS

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Away

nobody@flickr.com (haelio) — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:32:55 -0700

haelio posted a photo:

This would be me a few days later. What impresses me is the relative size of the fjord and the ferry. Up close, the ferries are quite large, but as they recede into the distance they look like paddle boats! In this photo, the ferry is barely halfway to the ridge you see towards the left of the image.

Canon EOS 350D with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS

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