In season Greenland Icefjord Calving — Ilulissat
The Ilulissat Icefjord — a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the world's most productive glacier outside Antarctica, calving 46 cubic kilometres of ice per year from the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier — produces a continuous spectacle of massive calving events whose resulting icebergs are so large they ground in the fjord and can only exit when they have melted enough to float over the 250-metre sill. The icebergs at Ilulissat reach 100 metres in height and 500 metres in length — larger than most buildings the observer has ever stood beside — and their grounding at the fjord mouth creates a surreal traffic jam of blue-white ice architecture visible from the town of Ilulissat in every direction. The calving events — a sustained roar, a vast section of glacier face falling away and rolling, the wave front advancing across the fjord — occur continuously day and night, and under the midnight sun from June through August the 24-hour light allows continuous viewing.
About this spectacle
Standing at the edge of Ilulissat Icefjord, visitors encounter a landscape that defies ordinary scale. Icebergs stretching 500 metres in length and rising 100 metres above the waterline crowd the fjord mouth in a slow-motion traffic jam, grounded on the 250-metre sill until they melt enough to float free. The air carries a perpetual low rumble — the glacier face of Sermeq Kujalleq shedding 46 cubic kilometres of ice per year in continuous calving events. When a major calving occurs, an entire wall of ice shears away, rolls thunderously into the water, and sends a wave front rippling across the fjord. The ice itself glows in every shade of blue-white, from milky turquoise to deep cobalt in compressed interior ice. From June through August the midnight sun means the spectacle never dims: at 2 a.m. the icebergs are bathed in warm amber light, and the constant daylight makes every hour a viable viewing window. The town of Ilulissat sits within sight of this geological theatre, and marked hiking trails lead to elevated viewpoints over the fjord.
When to go
Jan — Dec, peak Jun — Aug
Getting there
Nearest airport: JAV. Nearest city: Ilulissat.
Booking options
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