Icebergs on Lake Superior

The sun has been out these past few days. With the higher angle, it is not taking long for the sun to melt the snow in the dunes. Last year at this time there was not much sand showing through in the dunes. This year, well over half of the non-forested area is already devoid of snow.

Friend Wendy and I explored the dunes again yesterday, but this time we walked up on the bluff going west for quite some distance. Icebergs are one way that rocks are moved around the lake. When large chunks of ice break off the shore, they float around Lake Superior only to be beached on a distant shore. When the wind switches, they again break loose, but this time carrying rocks that they "collected" on the shore. Since the winds on Lake Superior are predominantly from the northwest, the icebergs are pushed to the southeast end of Lake Superior. The beaches around Grand Marais have no peninsulas or islands to block the movement of ice, so the bergs are pushed onto our beaches where they melt and dump their loads of rocks.

Pictured below are some of the iceberg photos I took yesterday.