Philpots Island, Baffin Bay, Nunavut, Canada

September 8, 2018 - Day 13 of Quark's Northwest Passage Voyage.

The activities, sights, and sounds on FLICKR:
flic.kr/p/2gTSGsa

Excerpt from the day's Journal:
"We landed on the southern side of the island, where a light coating of snow had fallen through the night. The snow continued to fall lightly as we departed the ship, but visibility was good.
On shore, a perimeter was set up, with lookouts creating the boundary. Inside this area we were able to wander freely, explore the landscape and take the time to think about this land we have been privileged to visit. A few of us opted to walk a loop stopping at each guard to chat and get some exercise. Most of us stayed lower on the landscape, preferring to investigate the small lake nearby and the multi-tonal rocks underfoot. With the snow and fog looming, our visibility became lessened to a level that had us returning back to the beach and to the ship."
_____________________________________________

Philpots Island was discovered in 1869. The island consists of ancient red granite that is part of the Ellesmere-North Greenland geological complex. It has been dated to 1.6 billion years in age. It is relatively flat by comparison to Devon or Baffin Island.

In the open water icebergs, calved from a huge glacier, represent glacial ice. Gradual accumulation of snowfall on Devon Island has been pushed out by its sheer weight and calved into the sea. In a large piece the ice seems to glow with an ethereal blue light, the larger the piece the bluer the ice.

Blue ice is not an optical illusion, but the result of dense, clear terrestrial ice allowing only the shorter bluish wavelengths of sunlight to pass through, while filtering out the longer reddish wavelengths.

White ice contains small bubbles of air, leftover from the snowfall. These reflect and refract all wavelengths of light and we see white. When pressure has forced the air from the ice, leaving pure, crystalline H20, the ice rejects, as it were, more of the wavelengths that we perceive as blue.

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Arctic Poppy, Philpots Island, Baffin Bay, Nunavut, Canada

September 8, 2018 - Day 13 of Quark's Northwest Passage Voyage.

The activities, sights, and sounds on FLICKR:
flic.kr/p/2gTSGsa

Polar Haiku
Rocks Dusted with snow
Yellow remnants of summer
Look! Arctic Poppies!

Excerpt from the day's Journal:
"We landed on the southern side of the island, where a light coating of snow had fallen through the night. The snow continued to fall lightly as we departed the ship, but visibility was good.
On shore, a perimeter was set up, with lookouts creating the boundary. Inside this area we were able to wander freely, explore the landscape and take the time to think about this land we have been privileged to visit. A few of us opted to walk a loop stopping at each guard to chat and get some exercise. Most of us stayed lower on the landscape, preferring to investigate the small lake nearby and the multi-tonal rocks underfoot. With the snow and fog looming, our visibility became lessened to a level that had us returning back to the beach and to the ship."

© All Rights Reserved

Philpots Island, Baffin Bay, Nunavut, Canada

September 8, 2018 - Day 13 of Quark's Northwest Passage Voyage.

The activities, sights, and sounds on FLICKR:
flic.kr/p/2gTSGsa

Excerpt from the day's Journal:
"We landed on the southern side of the island, where a light coating of snow had fallen through the night. The snow continued to fall lightly as we departed the ship, but visibility was good.
On shore, a perimeter was set up, with lookouts creating the boundary. Inside this area we were able to wander freely, explore the landscape and take the time to think about this land we have been privileged to visit. A few of us opted to walk a loop stopping at each guard to chat and get some exercise. Most of us stayed lower on the landscape, preferring to investigate the small lake nearby and the multi-tonal rocks underfoot. With the snow and fog looming, our visibility became lessened to a level that had us returning back to the beach and to the ship."
_____________________________________________

Philpots Island was discovered in 1869. The island consists of ancient red granite that is part of the Ellesmere-North Greenland geological complex. It has been dated to 1.6 billion years in age. It is relatively flat by comparison to Devon or Baffin Island.

In the open water icebergs, calved from a huge glacier, represent glacial ice. Gradual accumulation of snowfall on Devon Island has been pushed out by its sheer weight and calved into the sea. In a large piece the ice seems to glow with an ethereal blue light, the larger the piece the bluer the ice.

Blue ice is not an optical illusion, but the result of dense, clear terrestrial ice allowing only the shorter bluish wavelengths of sunlight to pass through, while filtering out the longer reddish wavelengths.

White ice contains small bubbles of air, leftover from the snowfall. These reflect and refract all wavelengths of light and we see white. When pressure has forced the air from the ice, leaving pure, crystalline H20, the ice rejects, as it were, more of the wavelengths that we perceive as blue.

© All Rights Reserved

Philpots Island, Baffin Bay, Nunavut, Canada

September 8, 2018 - Day 13 of Quark's Northwest Passage Voyage.

The activities, sights, and sounds on FLICKR:
flic.kr/p/2gTSGsa

Philpots Island lies in Baffin Bay and is a member of the Queen Elizabeth Islands and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in the territory of Nunavut. It is the largest of Devon Island's offshore islands, located off of the east coast of Devon Island, where the ice that caps Devon Island reaches the Arctic sea.

Philpots Island was discovered in 1869. The island consists of ancient red granite that is part of the Ellesmere-North Greenland geological complex. It has been dated to 1.6 billion years in age. It is relatively flat by comparison to Devon or Baffin Island.

In the open water icebergs, calved from a huge glacier, represent glacial ice. Gradual accumulation of snowfall on Devon Island has been pushed out by its sheer weight and calved into the sea. In a large piece the ice seems to glow with an ethereal blue light, the larger the piece the bluer the ice.

Blue ice is not an optical illusion, but the result of dense, clear terrestrial ice allowing only the shorter bluish wavelengths of sunlight to pass through, while filtering out the longer reddish wavelengths.

White ice contains small bubbles of air, leftover from the snowfall. These reflect and refract all wavelengths of light and we see white. When pressure has forced the air from the ice, leaving pure, crystalline H20, the ice rejects, as it were, more of the wavelengths that we perceive as blue.

© All Rights Reserved

Philpots Island, Baffin Bay, Nunavut, Canada

September 8, 2018 - Day 13 of Quark's Northwest Passage Voyage.

The activities, sights, and sounds on FLICKR:
flic.kr/p/2gTSGsa

Excerpt from the day's Journal:
"We landed on the southern side of the island, where a light coating of snow had fallen through the night. The snow continued to fall lightly as we departed the ship, but visibility was good.
On shore, a perimeter was set up, with lookouts creating the boundary. Inside this area we were able to wander freely, explore the landscape and take the time to think about this land we have been privileged to visit. A few of us opted to walk a loop stopping at each guard to chat and get some exercise. Most of us stayed lower on the landscape, preferring to investigate the small lake nearby and the multi-tonal rocks underfoot. With the snow and fog looming, our visibility became lessened to a level that had us returning back to the beach and to the ship."

© All Rights Reserved