It would take a long time for that ground-up rock to spread so uniformly throughout the ice, Tarasov said.
Tip of the iceberg
Tarasov theorizes that the black berg was probably part of a much larger chunk of ice before it broke off into the water.
“Over time, as it travels around Baffin Bay and down the coast of Labrador, it’s melting away. So I think a lot of that ice is melted away. Maybe the part that’s clean is underneath, right? Again, 90 per cent of the ice is underneath the water. So we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg on top,” he said.
He also offers another possible explanation for the iceberg’s intriguing colour.
There is some evidence showing that an asteroid struck the northwest corner of Greenland at some point in the distant past, he said. The iceberg could have some dust from that meteorite strike if it came from the area.
No matter what, the ice likely isn’t new: it’s quite possible the dirt on the iceberg may not have seen the “light of day for hundreds of thousands of years,” Tarasov said.
This article, written by John Gaudi, was originally published for CBC News on June 4, 2025.
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