Sea ice & icebergs

Seaice

A few hundred meters out of the coastline, Lofoten, Norway.

Year: 2018


Photographer: Benjamin Behre (edited by Frameworks)

Interventions
Actions aimed at preserving or restoring sea-based ice

Interventions

Blue Iceberg, Rødefjord, Northeast Greenland National Park

The ice in glaciers has been under enormous pressure for eons. The compression eliminates air and reflective surfaces within the ice.

Year: 2014


Photographer: Peter Prokosch

Arctic sea ice extent has rapidly decreased over the last few decades, with most multi-year ice disappearing altogether. This has already had major effects on local communities and ecosystems. The disappearance of the relatively reflective sea ice also leads to a dramatic decrease of albedo in the Arctic and subsequent high energy uptakes by the darker water during the Arctic summers.
Inuit hunter traveling by snow scooter on melting sea ice, Pond Inlet, Canada

Seal hunting (mainly on abundant ring seals) is an important part of life for the Inuit of Pond Inlet (Inuktitut: Mittimatalik).

Year: 2013


Photographer: Peter Prokosch

Arctic sea ice extent has rapidly decreased over the last few decades, with most multi-year ice disappearing altogether. This has already had major effects on local communities and ecosystems. The disappearance of the relatively reflective sea ice also leads to a dramatic decrease of albedo in the Arctic and subsequent high energy uptakes by the darker water during the Arctic summers.
Sea ice covered Coast in July, Sterlegova, Taymyr, Russia

Sea ice is simply frozen ocean water. It forms, grows, and melts in the ocean. In contrast, icebergs, glaciers, ice sheets, and ice shelves all originate on land.

Year: 1991


Photographer: Peter Prokosch

Arctic sea ice extent has rapidly decreased over the last few decades, with most multi-year ice disappearing altogether. This has already had major effects on local communities and ecosystems. The disappearance of the relatively reflective sea ice also leads to a dramatic decrease of albedo in the Arctic and subsequent high energy uptakes by the darker water during the Arctic summers.
Sea ice melting, North of Dickson, Taymyr, Russia

Sea ice is simply frozen ocean water. It forms, grows, and melts in the ocean. In contrast, icebergs, glaciers, ice sheets, and ice shelves all originate on land.

Year: 1991


Photographer: Peter Prokosch

Arctic sea ice extent has rapidly decreased over the last few decades, with most multi-year ice disappearing altogether. This has already had major effects on local communities and ecosystems. The disappearance of the relatively reflective sea ice also leads to a dramatic decrease of albedo in the Arctic and subsequent high energy uptakes by the darker water during the Arctic summers.
Sea ice, North-West Spitsbergen National Park, Svalbard

Sea ice is frozen seawater that floats on the ocean surface. It forms in both the Arctic and the Antarctic in each hemisphere’s winter, and it retreats, but does not completely disappear, in the summer.

Year: 2015


Photographer: Peter Prokosch

Arctic sea ice extent has rapidly decreased over the last few decades, with most multi-year ice disappearing altogether. This has already had major effects on local communities and ecosystems. The disappearance of the relatively reflective sea ice also leads to a dramatic decrease of albedo in the Arctic and subsequent high energy uptakes by the darker water during the Arctic summers.
Shelf-Ice pieces, Antarctic Peninsula

An ice shelf is a thick platform of ice that forms at the grounding line of a glacier, where the glacier meets the coastline.

Year: 2016


Photographer: Peter Prokosch

With rising Arctic temperatures, there have been major changes in iceberg production rates from marine terminating glaciers. These icebergs drift into warmer sea waters where they will slowly melt.

Antarctic Peninsula 1

Unlike the Arctic, which at its center is an ocean, Antarctica is a landmass that is surrounded by the Southern Ocean.

Year: 2016


Photographer: Peter Prokosch

Arctic sea ice extent has rapidly decreased over the last few decades, with most multi-year ice disappearing altogether. This has already had major effects on local communities and ecosystems. The disappearance of the relatively reflective sea ice also leads to a dramatic decrease of albedo in the Arctic and subsequent high energy uptakes by the darker water during the Arctic summers.
Nuclear icebreaker "Taymyr" operating in sea ice North of Dickson, Taymyr, Russia

Sea ice is simply frozen ocean water. It forms, grows, and melts in the ocean. In contrast, icebergs, glaciers, ice sheets, and ice shelves all originate on land.

Year: 1991


Photographer: Peter Prokosch

Sea ice can be an effective insulator between colder winter air and the warmer ocean below, thereby reducing the potential dissipation of heat into space.