Rare black iceberg spotted off Labrador coast has social media buzzing

John Gaudi · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 04, 2025 11:28 AM EDT | Last Updated: June 4

A uncommon achromatic iceberg spotted disconnected the seashore of Labrador is making a splash connected societal media aft a food harvester surviving successful Carbonear, N.L., took a photograph of it portion sportfishing for shrimp past month.

Originally from the Faroe Islands, Hallur Antoniussen was moving with a unit connected committee the Saputi mill freezer trawler disconnected the seashore of Labrador successful mid-May. 

He'd ne'er seen an iceberg similar this 1 before. 

"I person seen icebergs that are rolled, what they accidental person rolled successful the formation with immoderate rocks successful it. This 1 present is wholly different. It's not lone that helium is each black. He is astir ... successful a diamond shape," Antoniussen said successful an interrogation with CBC Radio's Labrador Morning.

He spotted the berg aft going up the ship's crane erstwhile they were much than 100 kilometres offshore in the Hopedale channel, located betwixt Nain and Hopedale. 

A unit subordinate had counted 47 icebergs successful the country conscionable the time before.  

Antoniussen doesn't deliberation it's a berg that tipped implicit — oregon rolled connected the formation — picking up ungraded and rocks aft getting grounded. He's seen a batch of icebergs implicit his 50 years of sportfishing disconnected of Greenland, and much precocious off the Labrador seashore since 1989. 

The 64-year-old said it was hard to estimation the size of the iceberg astatine oversea but figured it was astatine slightest 3 times the size of a regular bungalow. 

He took a representation from astir six kilometres away. 

"It's thing you don't spot precise often, and a camera is not thing I tally astir [with] erstwhile I'm working. So, I conscionable ran to my country and took my telephone and snapped this picture," helium said. 

Antoniussen said the berg looked similar a stone with tons of truly acheronian greys and achromatic veins successful it, and rapidly ruled retired that a shadiness was being formed connected it. 

He took the photograph to amusement different unit members connected the sportfishing boat. Then Antoniussen posted it connected Facebook, and it soon took off, garnering hundreds of comments aft being shared around. 

Commenters person mused astir everything from aliens to precious metals, and adjacent dinosaurs being hidden successful the ice.

"It's an Oil Berg," said 1 poster.

"Looks similar a elephantine [woolly] mammoth!" exclaimed another.

Antoniessen is clear: this is simply a existent photo. 

Other radical wondered if the iceberg has volcanic ash successful it, a effect of immoderate past eruption. 

An awesome iceberg 

Lev Tarasov, a Memorial University physicist and glacial world systems modeller, doesn't regularisation that past theory out completely.

Tarasov says determination are volcanoes beneath the crystal caps of Iceland, and portion he's not precisely definite astir volcanoes successful Greenland, helium added that scientists person measured hotspots successful the landmass's cardinal region.

Like Antoniussen, helium hasn't seen an iceberg rather similar this 1 before. 

Tarasov observed smaller versions of the achromatic iceberg during his fieldwork connected the Kangerlussuaq Fjord successful Greenland past summertime — conscionable not arsenic impressive, helium said.  

He guesses the crystal successful the berg is astatine slightest 1,000 years old, but could besides beryllium exponentially much past — even formed arsenic galore as 100,000 years ago.

Tarasov said crystal from each implicit Greenland is dilatory converging toward its coastline, and erstwhile it gets there, it breaks disconnected to signifier icebergs.

Those icebergs tin instrumentality 1 to 3 years earlier reaching the Newfoundland and Labrador coastline. 

A terrestrial journey 

Tarasov says it's a reminder conscionable however dynamic crystal tin be. 

Ice streams, also known arsenic outlet glaciers, move overmuch faster than different parts of the crystal sheet; they transportation crystal from the interior, traveling done heavy valleys oregon channels retired to the coast. 

They prime up rocks and ungraded on the way.  

"There's parts of the crystal that are really flowing up to 20 kilometres per year, which would mean that ... the crystal is moving possibly a fewer metres each hour," Tarasov said. 

The bottommost of the crystal grinds against the earth's crust, helium explained. There's a full batch of churning, turning all that stone and sediment into a pulverization that past spreads up done columns of ice. 

It would instrumentality a agelong clip for that ground-up stone to dispersed truthful uniformly passim the ice, Tarasov said.

Tip of the iceberg 

Tarasov theorizes that the achromatic berg was astir apt portion of a overmuch larger chunk of crystal earlier it broke disconnected into the water.

"Over time, arsenic it travels astir Baffin Bay and down the seashore of Labrador, it's melting away. So I deliberation a batch of that crystal is melted away. Maybe the portion that's cleanable is underneath, right? Again, 90 per cent of the crystal is underneath the water. So we're lone seeing the extremity of the iceberg connected top," helium said. 

Tarasov thinks the iceberg rolled implicit astatine immoderate point, and is present showing its underbelly. 

He besides offers different imaginable mentation for the iceberg's intriguing colour.

There is some evidence showing that an asteroid struck the northwest country of Greenland astatine immoderate constituent successful the distant past, helium said. The iceberg could person immoderate particulate from that meteorite onslaught if it came from the area.  

No substance what, the crystal apt isn't new: it's rather imaginable the ungraded connected the iceberg whitethorn not person seen the "light of time for hundreds of thousands of years," Tarasov said.

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