The first few snowflakes fell 15,000 years ago . It snowed and snowed , and drifts formed along the coast of the landmass we now call Greenland , turning everything white and crisp and sparkly . Eventually , the weight of the snow pressed the lower layers into great sheets of ice . As more snow fell , these sheets would have expanded far out into the ocean . These days the locals call the area Ilulissat Kangerlua . Ilulissat is a Greenlandic word meaning ‘ iceberg ’ and kangerlua means ‘ fjord ’.
Sermeq Kujalleq , also known as the Jakobshavn Glacier is one of the most productive in the region , flowing at a rate of 40 metres per day . Every year , it calves 46 km3 of ice . Enormous chunks of ice fall away , shards flying . This is how the iceberg we ’ re calling Ilulissat was born . A great cracking sound and a splitting of frost announced the arrival of perhaps the most significant iceberg in human history .
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Ilulissat was enormous , over a mile long and composed
of roughly one billion tons of fresh water . Its craggy sides reached a hundred feet above sea-level , flashing pale turquoise in the sharp sea air . On a clear morning , it could be seen from miles away , gliding majestically through the ocean , several times faster than the glacier from which it was born .
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Like many icebergs , Ilulissat would have hosted plankton and algae , tiny plants that would in turn have fed small , shrimp-like creatures called krill . In those first few months , as it bobbed down the channel we call Iceberg Alley , Ilulissat would have been joined by jellyfish , squid and other marine life attracted by the tasty krill .
Ringed seals may have climbed onto its shallower shores to sleep or shelter from high winds . In the spring of 1909 , gulls would have nested on its cliff ledges and seal pups would have frolicked on the lower banks .
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