Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 12/12/2008 - 10:10
Forums
Oden Antarctic Expedition 08

Dear Mr. P  This is Mr. Cavalieri's class (Sam's Teracher)  We were wondering has the boat hit any ice burs

                                          

                                from,

                                Sam and his class

Mon, 12/15/2008 - 17:26

Jeff Peneston

Mr. Cavalieri’s class,
First, I am sorry that it has taken me so long to reply to your question but here goes.
Yes the Oden has hit icebergs!
Icebergs are broken, floating chunks of glaciers that originally were formed on land from snow.  Some of them are a 1000 feet thick and stick up above the sea for over 100 feet. I just saw one that was that thick and it was over a mile long.  But, most are smaller and some are the size of a car and they get mixed in with the frozen surface of the ocean that we call sea ice.
As the Oden is pushing through the sea ice we hit these small chunks of glacier ice all the time.  Just a few minutes ago we felt a vibration as a big chunk of blue glacial ice got stuck against one of the monster sized propellers of the Oden.  The ice was chopped to bits in a few moments.  On the other hand, the Captain would never get to close to the bigger bergs.  And, they are easy to see since the sky is always bright with 24 hours of daylight and we rarely go more than 5 mph through the ice.
Take care, and keep reading my journal,
Jeff