Earth

Water

What color is an iceberg?

Most icebergs are blue and white. However, one in a thousand icebergs in Antarctica is emerald green. They are only found in Antarctica because the Northern Hemisphere is not cold enough. These icebergs form when seawater freezes to the bottom of floating ice shelves. The ice looks green from the combination of yellow and blue. Yellow is from the yellowish-brown remains of dead plankton dissolved in seawater and trapped in the ice. Blue is present because although ices reflects virtually all the wavelengths of visible light, it absorbs slightly more red wavelengths than blue.



Close

This is a web preview of the "The Handy Science Answer Book" app. Many features only work on your mobile device. If you like what you see, we hope you will consider buying. Get the App