Arctic Ocean Ice Crashes on Alaska Shores

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2006/jan/27/012703640.html

Ridges of Arctic Ocean sea ice were shoved onto a Barrow road in quantities not seen in nearly three decades.

Two ice surges, known to Alaska Natives as ivus, stunned residents who had never seen large blocks of ice rammed ashore.

"It just looked like a big old mountain of ice," said L.A. Leavitt, 19, who left his nightshift job at the city early Tuesday to check out the ridges.

Ivus are like frozen tsunamis and crash ashore violently. They have killed hunters and are among the Arctic's most feared natural phenomena.

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[GrumpyGreg]

1. God almighty---if I saw one of them coming towards me I would

be paralised with fear.

[jpak]

2. One of the most frightening things I've ever seen

was 20-30 foot swell coming through 6-foot thick arctic pack ice (after 3 days of 60 knot winds).

Slow motion ice mountains - and we came close to capsizing the 300 foot Canadian icebreaker I was on that day...not fun at all...

[Deb]

3. wow, check out this pic

"Periodically, ice shoves (known as ivus by the Inupiat Eskimo of the North Slope of Alaska) affect the coast. An ice shove that occurred near the shore near Barrow has been one focus of my research." We have the perfect smiley for this researcher-:scared:
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/~mahoney/Research/FIDynam.html

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/~mahoney/IceShove/ShoveA11.html