Iceberg straight ahead! Oh…. Oh yeah…. Good thing we’re not on the Titanic!
Dial it back, Chirpy. We’re in Iceland, not on a ship that’s about to hit an iceberg and sink! Although, I have to admit I have been thinking of that famous disaster as I walk along Jokulsarlon Lagoon.
Icelandic kids play along the the iceberg-filled lagoon.
It’s true. As I look into the water I see that only 1/3 of the iceberg is poking out of the water. 2/3 of it is under the water. That’s A LOT of water frozen solid!
Many gallons of water are captured in the ice of an iceberg.
That got us thinking: Where did these icebergs come from? Where are they going? What happens when the ice melts? We’d have to go EXPLORING (Chirpy’s favorite word) to find out!
Icebergs are broken off bits of glacier floating in water. Some of them are VERY BIG.
It became clear that the icebergs were coming from the glacier on the other side of the lagoon. The glacier is the large field of ice on the land in the background of the picture above. Can you see it? It’s very thick – LOTS of ice – so it’s there all year ’round, even now in the summertime. Part of the glacier melts every summer. As it melts from the bottom, the sheet of ice slides downhill.
Icebergs float in the lagoon.
Parts of the glacier break off and slide into the lagoon. When the ice is floating it’s called an iceberg. We wanted a closer look, so we hopped into a boat to get to the other side of the lagoon.
We had to be careful not to run into the floating ice as we crossed the lagoon in a small inflatable boat.
The view from the boat was incredibly beautiful in the evening.
The wind blowing off the ice was freezing cold, but we didn’t mind because it was all so fascinating and so beautiful.
We came close to the edge of the glacier that’s sliding into the lagoon.
Be careful! Large blocks of ice break off from the glacier and become icebergs.
The lagoon opens into the Atlantic Ocean, so eventually the icebergs float out into the ocean. As they float, they melt. The water, which was once ice on land, now becomes part of the liquid water in the ocean. I’m sure you can see the cause and effect relationship here: land ice into the ocean → more water in the ocean.
Here’s the really important part….
The more water that’s added to the ocean, the higher the water level on land. This is called sea level rise.
In the video below, you’ll see an iceberg that floated out of the Jokulsarlon Lagoon and into the ocean. Now it’s melting rapidly.
The extra water has to go somewhere. Right? When you add ice or water to an already-full glass of water, what happens? The water level gets higher and it overflows the glass! Same with the ocean. When you add more ice and water, the water level gets higher and it overflows onto land.
This isn’t a problem if no one is living near the ocean, but if people are living on the coast (where the land meets the ocean), then that becomes a BIG problem.
In the video below, the animation shows years passing on the right, and what will happen if sea level keeps rising on the left.
As you can see, it’s happening slowly, over the years, but we need to pay attention to sea level rise now, so we can help slow it down. Let’s get to the nitty gritty….
What’s causing the land ice to melt and slide into the ocean? GLOBAL WARMING. We all know that warmer temperature causes ice to melt. That’s a no brainer. As our planet gets warmer, more and more land ice ends up in the ocean. Let’s work together to do something about it.
Click here to find out more about global warming, and what we can do to slow it down and help our planet.
Gabriella: I think that sea level rise is very bad. Us kids should do something fast! I learned that if you live near the coast (ocean) then if the sea level rises then it would flood the house.
Kylee: I realized that sea level rise can flood our land. This can be bad if you live at the coast. You should talk to your friends.
wow that is so sad that all the ice is melting.
We learned that the ice is melting faster and faster. I didn’t know it would go faster. I thought it would stay the same speed.
I think the same thing.
Gabriel and Brayden
We learned that global warming is causing ice to melt and sea levels are rising because of this, and it can cause big floods to our houses which is not good. So if we want to stop this we all have to stop polluting the air. We can stop this if we all reuse and recycle. Allwe must do is work together and we can stop this!!
glaciers are melting because of global warming and then causes sea level rise and that causes flooding and then you don’t have a place to live.
That video is very convincing when it shows the sea level rise, I didn’t think it could rise so much. Also I didn’t know that icebergs could be so big, especially in the Jokulsarlon Lagoon. They also melt surprisingly fast. :0
We learned that ice is melting really fast and causing sea level rise. We need to slow down global warming because people living near the ocean will get affected by the sea level rise and there houses will flood. One way to slow down global warming is to use green technology instead of electric devices so there isn’t as much carbon dioxide in the air.
We learned that if you live by the ocean side your house could be flooded in eighty- four years.
I think that it is bad for sea level rise because then it will flood and then your house is nothing
This page taught me many things. I learned that in many years the ocean will be flooding houses on the coast from the melting glaciers unless we try to help stop global warming.
We think that this is a very serios topic and more people should know
Sory that was incomplete we accidentally hit delete our fact is that we saw what will happen in 80 years we think we need to tell more people about global warming so homes dont flood
I learned so much from this page! I learned how icebergs get into the ocean and I never noticed how big the ice sheets were in Iceland!!
I learned that when glaciers go into the water they turn icebergs. I learned that when the ice in the water melts rapidly.
We learned that the icebergs can go up onto the shore. We also learned that as icebergs float they melt. Another thing we learned is that the ice is a effect and a cause of global warming.
We need to slow down global warming. If we don’t slow down global warming,it would hurry up the Sea level rise. This is bad for the earth because if the sea level rise continues humans and animals are in danger. One way it can be dangerous is if it floods our towns and cities.And if it gets worse the floods can kill us.
I never knew global warming had such a vitol effect on our planet. First, global warming causes ice to melt which causes sea level to rise. Because of this, coastal areas could be completely submerged in water. This is why global warming has such a critical effect on our planet.
Now we know that sea level rise is happening faster then we think.This is important because the people who are closer to the water there houses might flood. We learned that global warming is causing the icebergs to melt and that’s a big problem to us.We need to slow down global warming or city’s and houses will go under water.
We learned that 2/3 of an iceberg is underwater and 1/3 of the iceberg is above the water.
Now we can see that global warming is very strong and it can melt very thick ice. It’s crazy that the sea level is rising so fast! It’s so weird how much water there is instead of ice!! 🙂
I learned that melting glaciers causes lots of floods. I also learned that global warming is causing the glaciers to break apart into smaller pieces of ice called icebergs.
Now we know that 2/3 of an entire iceberg could be underwater!
I learned that icebergs are just pieces of glaciers that broke off of it and went into the ocean. I also learned that the ice is melting.
I can’t believe how big that glacier looked compared to everyone on the boat, and the size of the boat! The world has many amazing things at the source!
I think sea level rise needs to slow. If the seas rise like this in the future towns will get flooded people will die. I read a book called The Maze Runner and the sun got so hot it spread this deadly disease. We need to slow sea level rise.
Sea level rise is going up and we need to stop poluting the air and stop global warming.