an iceberg near Antarctica
Floating mountains of ice
What is that great, shining shape floating in the cold, gray water of
the northern sea? Is it a mountain of snow? Is it an island of ice where
the Frost Giants live? Is it the great, cold castle of the Snow King?
No, it’s none of these things. It’s an iceberg—one of the enormous
chunks of ice that float in the ocean near the North and South poles. An
iceberg can be as big as a mountain, as wide as an island, and as
beautifully shaped as a castle. Many icebergs weigh millions of tons and
are many miles (kilometers) wide.
Giant sheets of ice cover the South Pole and a large
part of Greenland, near the North Pole. Icebergs are huge pieces that
break off from the edges of these ice sheets. The bergs drift along in
the ocean until they reach warmer water. Then they begin to melt and
break apart. In time, they melt completely and become part of the
ocean’s water.
An iceberg may stick far up out of the water. It may tower over great
ships and make them look like toy boats. But the part above the water is
only a tiny bit of the whole iceberg. The part below the surface may be
six times bigger than the part we see.
It’s a Fact
You can see for yourself that only a small part of an iceberg sticks up
above the water. Put an ice cube into a glass of water. Look through the
side of the glass. You will see that most of the ice cube is below the
surface of the water. The little ice cube in the glass acts just like a
giant iceberg in the ocean.
