Know Before You Go – Blog

When you embark on your guided expedition with Quark Expeditions, you’ll learn the Polar Regions have a lingo all their own! To help you prepare for your adventure have you speaking like a seasoned explorer, here some terms best categorized as ‘Polar Speak’: Ice, Icescapes and Icebreakers Anchor Ice: submerged ice attached to the sea bed. Brash Ice: floating ice accumulations of fragments of 2 meters (6.5 ft) across or smaller. Calving: a block of ice breaking away from a glacier. Crack: a fracture in floating sea ice narrow enough to jump across. Crevasse: a crack or fissure in a glacier. Fast Ice: sea ice attached to land. Floe: a piece of floating sea ice. Frazil: fine bits of ice suspended in water. Ice-Shelf: a floating sheet of ice, usually of considerable thickness, attached to the coastline. Pack Ice: large pieces of floating ice driven together in a floating mass. Slack Pack: a large amount of ice, less dense than pack ice. Tabular Berg: an iceberg with a flat top parallel with the waterline. All Hands on Deck: Nautical Terms Ice Strengthened: a vessel suited to polar travel, and can include a double or flat hull, or a hull clear of fixtures such as stabilizers; specialized engines; a protected rudder and propeller. Is constructed of thicker steel; has an ice belt, an area of the hull with a thicker layer of steel and additional interior structure. Ice Breaker: different from an ice strengthened vessel, with three traits that most ships don’t possess – an ice […]