Bernal Glacier
Thank the Vikings
Fjord and sound. Both words evoke visions of valleys formed by soaring ice-covered peaks reflecting in deep blue, placid waters far below. They are magical places.
But is there a difference between a fjord and a sound? Thanks to the Vikings, the answer is yes.
Fjord comes from the Old Norse word fjǫrthr meaning “to travel across.” Sound stems from the Old Norse word sund meaning “swimming” or “strait.”
A fjord is an underwater valley carved by glaciers. U- and V-shaped valleys carved by ancient glaciers left steep-sided mountains on either side. After the glaciers retreated, sea levels rose by as much as 390 feet inundating the carved valleys with sea water.
The Patagonian Ice Sheet during the last Ice Age. From antarcticglaciers.org:
A sound is a long, wide inlet of the sea between two peninsulas or other landforms. They are usually wider than a fjord. These underwater valleys are formed by river valley flooding, not by glaciers. Sounds often parallel the coastline, separating it from an island.
Both are often mistakenly used interchangeably. Milford Sound in New Zealand is technically a fjord, and Limfjord in Denmark is actually a sound!
My Visit
The most exciting part of my April visit to Patagonia was experiencing the Chilean fjords. We departed from Puerto Natales and went into the Canal de las Montañas.
From Wikipedia.
Unexpectedly, the seemingly ever-present howling winds and overcast skies of the fjords gave way to a pair of sunny, calm days. We could fly our drones!
The Shot
On April 15, we motored to the Bernal Glacier, a 30,000-year-old glacier slowly inching into the Canal de las Montañas. It was tricky flying because drones require line of sight to control them. Our foreground was on the very edge of our ability to maintain radio contact and control them.
The foreground was about three miles away at an altitude of 2,300 feet. Once I flew there, it was a matter of fine tuning the drone’s location. I wanted the glacial cracks aligned with the Cordillera Sarmiento Mountains about four miles further away.
The locations of the boat, Bernal Glacier, drone, and Cordillera Sarmiento Mountains.
Later that evening, Pim, the ship’s cook, poured Chivas on the rocks after dinner. But it wasn’t ordinary ice; these were 30,000-year-old ice cubes from the glacier.
You never know what you’ll experience when you travel!
The next Friday Photo is July 12 due to a family vacation.
Thanks for looking,
Chuck Derus