mucholderthen:

Pictures taken by Norwegian sailor Oyvind Tangen on board a research ship 1700 miles south of Cape Town, South Africa  [ X ]
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Via Australian Antarctic Division:

WHY ICEBERGS CAN HAVE COLORS AND STRIPES

Icebergs are formed from glacial ice that has built up from snow falling on the Antarctic continent over millennia;  glacial ice consists of pure fresh water.  The ice flows slowly to the coast and breaks off either from glaciers or from ice shelves.

ICE SHELVES
As seawater is drawn deep under the ice shelves by the oceanic currents, it becomes super-cooled  Under certain conditions it can freeze to the base of the ice shelf.

Because this ice is formed from seawater, it differs from the freshwater ice of the ice shelf. Often, the frozen seawater contains organic matter and minerals, causing it to have a different color and texture.

Thus icebergs broken off from the ice shelves may show layers of the pure blue-white glacial ice and greener ice formed from frozen seawater. As the bergs become fragmented and sculpted by the wind and waves, the different colored layers can develop striking patterns.

GLACIERS
Pure glacial ice, too, can exhibit striking color patterns. This is thought to be a result of melting that can occur on the continent before the bergs break off. Crevasses high on the Antarctic plateau can fill with melt water and then refreeze, producing layering of blue ice within a white ice matrix.

After calving, they begin eroding and the alignment of the stripes can become irregular, leading to icebergs with spectacular appearances.

- Dr Steve Nicol, Program Leader, Australian Antarctic Division

theanimationarchive:

Character design images and Model sheets for Mother Gothel from Disney’s Tangled. Artwork by Jin Kim.

Source: Cosmo Animato

wise-emperor:

Red pandas being cute

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buzzfeed:

Pizza understands me in a way that no one else can. 

odditiesoflife:

The Magical World of Living Light

This is the mysterious spectacle of bioluminescence. Its hard not to revel in the beauty of this remarkable natural phenomenon. These glowing creatures are primarily a product of the ocean. They are the primary source of light in the largest and darkest area of habitable land on Earth, the deep sea. On land, they are most commonly seen as glowing fungus on wood (foxfire) or in the few families of luminous insects (fireflies).