Iceberg FAQs

Iceberg Trivia Time: Test Your Knowledge with These 7 Questions on Bergs

You have seen icebergs in pictures, you may have even seen them in real life, but how much do you know about them? Try to answer and read the blog post to see if you were right 🐳

Iceberg Facts and Ocean Tours in Newfoundland with Ocean Quest Adventures

Do icebergs taste like seawater?

Though icebergs float in the ocean, they are not made of saltwater. Icebergs once were parts of glaciers, and glaciers are made of snow.

What’s an iceberg’s lifespan?

When icebergs float into warmer waters, they slowly melt away. Most icebergs that calve from glaciers only survive for 3 to 6 years before they completely dissolve in the ocean. However, their lifespan can be as long as 3,000 years from the moment they form as snow on a glacier until they eventually melt away.

Iceberg Facts and Ocean Tours in Newfoundland with Ocean Quest Adventures
Iceberg Facts and Ocean Tours in Newfoundland with Ocean Quest Adventures

What do Growlers have to do with icebergs and how big can icebergs be?

Growlers are actually what the smallest icebergs are called. These icebergs are about as big as a Toyota Corolla.

So icebergs range from “tiny” Growlers and slightly bigger Bergy Bits (this is what you call icebergs as big as a school bus) to VERY LARGE icebergs. These are taller than a 27-story building and can go as deep as 200 meters.

There are also “Tabular icebergs” which are enormous but flat and look a lot like floating table tops (hence the name). They can be a few kilometers long and 300 meters deep – that’s about the height of an Eiffel Tower hiding under the surface.

What does an iceberg and a glass of soda have in common?

Did you know that when an iceberg starts to melt, it doesn’t just go quietly? Instead, it puts on a show by making a fizzy sound. The sound is called “bergy seltzer”. The reason behind this phenomenon is that water bubbles get trapped inside the ice, and when the iceberg starts to melt, they burst out and create a fun popping sound.

Iceberg Facts and Ocean Tours in Newfoundland with Ocean Quest Adventures
Iceberg Facts and Ocean Tours in Newfoundland with Ocean Quest Adventures

Why are some icebergs blue?

Icebergs are formed of compressed snow. The bluish parts of icebergs are those that were compressed the most and have fewer air bubbles trapped inside. The more bubbles there are the whiter it will seem, but the pure ice reflects the light as blue.

Where do icebergs come from?

Most icebergs that we see in Newfoundland come from Greenland. There are around 40,000 (!) medium and large icebergs that calve from Greenland every year.

Iceberg Facts and Ocean Tours in Newfoundland with Ocean Quest Adventures
Iceberg Facts and Ocean Tours in Newfoundland with Ocean Quest Adventures

Where are icebergs now and how can I see them?

At the moment when we are writing this post, there were 22 icebergs (according to the Newfoundland Tourism Iceberg Finder tool) floating along the coasts of Newfoundland.

This spring has been rich for iceberg sightings, and though the bergs haven’t reached Avalon shores yet, the chances for that are very optimistic this year!

As soon as the icebergs approach our shores, we will open the bookings for our iceberg adventures, and you will be able to see them up close from a zodiac boat or a kayak. Stay tuned for future announcements in our Facebook, or Instagram, or keep an eye on our Adventure Calendar