paintings, writing, and explorations in sound
Black ice, black ice, what's the point of having black ice around in this world? You can't see black ice (no points for visual pleasure) and you can't scrape it up to put it somewhere strategic (zero points for usefulness). It's too hard to lick (no points for enticing the tongue the way an icicle… Continue reading phenom: black ice
Every year, the George Black ferry chugs across the Yukon River between Dawson City and West Dawson as long as the river is liquid enough for movement. The season of diesel travel is bracketed by break-up (usually early May) and freeze-up (anywhere from late October to late November). While we wait for the river to… Continue reading george black ferry: mini ice-ecosystem
Just 2 days ago we were walking around in t-shirts, wondering if it was going to get cold before the end of September. This morning, the answer: Now we're talking. Still seeing the Yukon River flow by (freeze-up won't happen til early November, typically). And the puddles are still releasing their thermal-protection layers of ice… Continue reading frozen puddles: so it begins
when icebergs collapse, we humans gasp and exclaim. and not only in Canada. West Greenland: Twillingate, Newfoundland: Point Armour, Labrador: well, actually this footage is silent, but you might add your own sound track while watching it: footage of an ice bridge in Argentina collapsing, with musical mellowness added on top after the fact: and… Continue reading iceberg collapse = human noise
Early June this year was the first time I had a chance to drive up part of the Dempster Highway, a packed gravel road that connects the southern Yukon with Inuvik in the Northwest Territories. The Dempster is a pathway to the NWT, but it's also a destination, an experience. It's the closest vehicle-accessible area… Continue reading phenom: rock glacier (plus some dempster highway dreaming)
On a busy week with a sculpture to make, 2 articles to write, and images to prep for International Freezer Appreciation Day, I'm taking the liberty of posting this educational segment about polynyas from the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre. Just to note first, though, that polynyi (alternate plural) occur in both the… Continue reading phenom: polynyas
It's going to be a hot Canada Day in Dawson – forecasts call for 25º C – and it would be an amazing day to be out on the Arctic Ocean if I was just a little bit closer to that locale. But cooling can happen through the mind, right? A contemplation of ice hummocking, a specific… Continue reading phenom: hummock, bummock + floeberg
Seracs are dense, large columns or chunks of ice that form when two crevasses meet on a glacier, or when two glaciers meet. They can also be part of an ice-fall. You can often see seracs at the terminus of a glacier where multiple crevasses meet and chop into each other, forming discrete blocks of… Continue reading phenom: serac
A rare ice phenomenon freaked out some Delta, B.C. residents on Friday May 22, and for good reason: ice chunks the size of volleyballs fell out of a perfectly blue sky, with not a cloud in sight. The story starts like this: Chris Drab was mowing his lawn last Friday evening when he heard what… Continue reading ice in news: megacryometeors fall in Delta, B.C.
You’d think it would be simple to write a post defining “moulins” – an ice phenom that appears in glaciers – but instead I’ve spent the last hour completely distracted by the beauty of photographs like this one. No matter how often I see photos of glacial ice formations, the colours and scale blow me… Continue reading phenom: moulin
meg walker 