A deep blue color is seen in the dense floating ice from a calving tidewater glacier in the Prince William Sound, Alaska

Calved Ice from Tidewater Glacier

Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA

Winter snow gradually accumulates on a glacier over time. The snow layer from each year is covered and compacted by each subsequent snow, and is gradually compressed and converted to firn. Firn is a form of ice that forms when snowflakes become granules due to compression. With more compression, the granules are squeezed together, and air is forced out. Eventually the granules are pressed together at the lowest levels to create dense glacial ice. These dense layers of ice absorb the long wavelengths of light and scatter short-waved blue light, which makes the ice appear blue.


Of the several types of glaciers, those called Tidewater Glaciers have their terminus at the sea. If the glacier is fed by enough snow to flow out of the mountains, ice will break off or calve into water at sea level leaving blocks of ice floating in the water. Photo © copyright by Dr. Edward Mikol.

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