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You’ll need your winter clothes for your next adventure. You’ll also need a helmet with a light and something special for your feet. Sharp metal spikes called crampons fit to the bottom of your boots. You’ll be glad to have them. T ey dig into the ice and keep you from slipping. You’re standing on top of a huge body of ice,


an enormous glacier. T is huge ice cap covers more than 8 percent of the country of Iceland. Hidden deep inside the glacier are a series of caves. Discovered in the 1980s, these caves did not form in rock, they formed in ice! Ice caves can be found all over Iceland.


T e cave you’re about to enter is over 500 meters high and almost 3 kilometers long. It’s a challenge to explore because it twists and turns and changes shape throughout. T e deeper you go, the bluer the ice looks.


T is is because of the way sunlight passes through the ice. At times, the ice glows orange because of the angle of the sun.


Ice Cave, Iceland Glacier caves form when liquid water enters


cracks in a thick, icy glacier. T is warmer water melts the cold, solid ice. Over time, the cracks get bigger and bigger as more and more water fl ows through. T ese Icelandic caves were formed by hot water heated by a volcanic spring below the glacier. T e cave moans and creaks as you move


through it. As the glacier shiſt s, so does the ice cave. Ice caves are naturally unstable. T ey can change very quickly and collapse at any time. T is cave can only be explored during winter when it is cold enough to harden the ice and make the cave stable. T e light from your helmet shines on the


crystal-like walls. In places, the ice looks like a giant frozen wave. In other places, jagged shards of ice jut out from the ceiling. You will be glad of your helmet. One of the biggest dangers is falling ice. T e conditions are always changing, but thankfully, today, it’s stable.


SEPTEMBER 2015 21


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