Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1908 — How Icebergs Form. [ARTICLE]

How Icebergs Form.

An iceberg is nothing but a fragment of a glacier detached by the action of the water, says the Chicago News. Some of them are of immense size and carry with them great masses of rock, earth and sometimes plants. Polar bears and seals have also been seen on them. Greenland Is the place from which most of the icebergs in the north Atlantic come. The waters that wash the base of a glacier are somewhat warmer in summer than they are in winter, and this has the effect of loosening and detaching large parts of it. The ocean currents then bear these fragments toward the temperate zone, where they are gradually melted. It Is during the latter part of the summer season that icebergs are most seen, for it takes a long time for them to become detached from the glaciers, with only the moderate degree of heat that the warm months give to northern waters. It is said that only about oneeighth of the iceberg shows above the water. If, therefore, one is seen that rises fifty feet above the sea, the sailor Iknows that its lower end is about 350 |feet below.