A terrifying, yet stunning, moment on freezing Arctic waters turned into viral footage when a massive glacier collapsed at Greenland’s famed Ilulissat Icefjord on July 16th.
Aboard a local tour boat positioned near the frozen colossus, passenger Magnus Nisse Bech Andersen captured the exact moment giant, apartment-building-sized chunks of ice sheared off the face, crashing into the fjord with explosive force.
The sheer kinetic energy released by the collapsing ice immediately generated towering, tsunami-like displacement waves that began hurtling directly toward the tour vessel. Watch the footage, and imagine being in the scenario below.
As the wall of water rapidly closed in, someone aboard the boat could be heard exclaiming in complete awe:
“This is the biggest one I’ve ever seen.”
Fortunately for everyone on board, because the waves formed in deeper water, they surged outward as smooth rollers rather than breaking into violent white water. Exhibiting expert reflexes, the boat’s captain gunned the throttle, accelerating quickly to safely ride over the crests and avoid a catastrophic impact.
In recent years, novelty wave specialists like Ben Gravy, Dylan Graves, and skimboarding phenom Blair Conklin have captivated the surfing world by hunting down and riding calving glacier waves in Alaska and Norway and beyond.
Related: Avalanche of Ice Crashes Into Alaska Ocean, Creating Glacier-Generated Waves (Video)
When footage of the Greenland surge began circulating on social media, several pro surfers immediately flagged the video, calling out the internet’s favorite weird-wave aficionados, essentially saying: “You guys missed it!”
The surging roller produced at Ilulissat possessed all the hallmarks of an epic novelty wave—a glassy, deep-water displacement swell rolling through an otherworldly, iceberg-filled backdrop.
Alas, there were no rubbered-up surfers on hand with tow-ropes to test this particular Arctic monster—at least not this time.
But as warming temperatures continue to trigger dramatic calving events across northern latitudes, it may only be a matter of time before novelty wave hunters make the pilgrimage back places like Greenland for the ultimate weird wave experience.
Stay tuned.
Related: Massive Iceberg Collapse Creates One of the Biggest Glacier Waves Ever (Video)
Original Post from this site