Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Jolly Good Time Day 2


 Once inside it was as if you were in a fairy tale, a very cold one but the light being dispersed through the ice was just amazing and an incredible deep glacial blue that you just couldn’t take your eyes off. The formations were a lot like your typical limestone cave but it did not seem to have been forming for that long as the growth of the stalagmites and stalactites seemed relatively new. The smooth edges could have been formed by running waters or by warmer air currents over the summer months but there was a fresh dusting of snow over the bulletproof ice floors and entrance.
 The cavern headed in about six meters perpendicular to the plateau ice and then headed around another ten to the left before heading deeper into the plateau. On the low side of this left hand corridor the edge dropped way to a pool of water with a crusty grey (I think this colour comes from the rock flour that is created by rock being crushed up in the glacial moraine) inch of ice over the top of it. There was more of the dusty flour in small deposits higher up the walls but who could guess at how deep these pools were? As your eyes adjusted the colours intensity was heightened and etched into my mind as one of the truly amazing wonders of Antarctica.


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