Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Icy finger of death caught on camera

HT to Charlie for sending this to me.

I am in awe of the natural world that God created. It is endlessly interesting and vibrant. What a Creator we have who should make these things by the sound of His voice! And He made the animals in one day! In thinking of how all the eco-systems interact and flow together to support one unified world, on which we float, I'm often rendered speechless. Wow.

Remember to thank the Creator for making such a habitable and pleasant place for us to live. Thank Him for His intellect and creativity that is on display for us to praise. He is surely a Most High God of infinite and boundless delight.

Below is a clip from the upcoming episide of Discovery's Frozen Planet. I've seen some of the previous episodes and they are great. Here is a Fox News article about what you will see on the video:

"Filmed for the first time, the icy “finger of death” is an unprecedented look at nature’s beauty -- seen at it's devastating worst. Called a brinicle (or brine icicle), cameramen Hugh Miller and Doug Anderson used a time-lapse camera to capture this awe-inspiring event beneath the Antarctic ice shelf for the upcoming Discovery Channel special series, Frozen Planet. “We were just blown away by how beautiful they were,” producer Kathryn Jeffs told FoxNews.com. Jeffs was in Antarctica with Miller and Anderson to capture the unique event. “We were exceptionally excited and we knew we had something that had never been filmed before, never been seen before. No one has really seen the formation of a brinicle.”

"It was pretty emotional when we saw that we got it. This magnificent yet terrifying phenomenon is caused by brine, or naturally occurring salt water, which tends to be denser than the surrounding seawater and has a lower freezing point. When super cold brine trickles down, the warmer seawater surrounds the cyclone with a brittle layer of ice. But capturing the event on tape was no easy feat, as the crew battled brutal conditions, technical challenges, and even seal attacks. “Because there have been so few studies on the brinicles, it’s really, really difficult to tell when and exactly how they are going to form,” Jeffs explained to FoxNews.com. “They do have a tendency to form when the ice is being disrupted, or in extremely cold conditions -- which disrupt the inner channels and sets in motion the flow of brine.”

"Following this hunch, Jeffs and her crew ventured out to the foothills of Mount Erebus, a remote volcano in Antarctica, where the team dealt with subzero temperatures and incredibly harsh conditions."

"The area also happened to be a seal habitat, notoriously territorial creatures. “We finished the first dive only to find the next morning that a seal had knocked over the camera,” Jeffs said. In the end, the team found success, to stunning effect, capturing not only the brinicle formation but also, what Jeffs refers to as the “river of death” flowing in front of it. “It was pretty emotional when we saw that we got it,” Jeffs told FoxNews.com, adding that some of the crew were close to tears. “We’re really proud of the achievement.”

Frozen Planet premiers on the Discovery Channel on March 18


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