The icebergs of Disko Bay in Greenland

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Disko Bay is a large bay located along the coast of Greenland looking towards Canada and the large Baffin Island. Here is the small town of Ilulissat and the beautiful Ilulissat Icefjord, one of the natural wonders of Greenland. In this fjord, the Greenland ice cap reaches the sea and it is at this point that huge icebergs break off every year.

The icebergs are produced by the Jakobshavn glacier (which in Greenlandic is called “Sermeq Kujalleq”). This is the most productive glacier in the Northern Hemisphere. The icebergs that detach from the glacier are enormous in size and float for years in the waters in front of the fjord and then be carried south by ocean currents. Some of the larger icebergs sometimes even reach very southern latitudes as far as the northern coast of the United States of America. Probably it was one of the icebergs that broke off from this glacier that sank the famous ship Titanic.

Daily, departing from the port of Ilulissat, excursions are organized with boats (more or less large) to admire, up close, the icebergs that dot Disko Bay. During these excursions it is not uncommon to be able to admire whales as well. Very beautiful are also the icebergs seen from the coast along one of the trekking paths that start from Ilulissat and run along the Icefjord.