Rolling Blue Waves Hit The Antarctic Coastline

The giant waves covered in a brilliant blue sheen are actually giant icicles, according to rumor-busting website Snopes.com. “The beautiful smoothly polished surfaces are again the result of melting,” it notes. “The transparent ice … has been created in a glacier or ice cap by the slow annealing of ice as it is buried under each year’s successive accumulation of snow.” Now Travouillen works on the Thirty Meter Telescope project in Hawaii, a giant telescope planned to open in 2021. (Photo by Tony Travouillon)

These brilliant blue ice look like frozen huge waves.

They were captured by French astrophysicist (and part-time photographer) Tony Travouillon as he travelled across Antarctica.

(Please click the photos for bigger images.)

Travouillen no longer spends his days in the frosty climates. Nowadays, he can be found in the much warmer Hawaiian Islands, where he works on the Thirty Meter Telescope project, a giant telescope planned to open in 2021. (Photo by Tony Travouillon)

Don’t expect to see surfboards – or snowboards – on these majestic frozen outcroppings near the Dumont D’Urville research station in Antarctica. (Photo by Tony Travouillon)

Although the waves appear as if they’ve been instantly frozen as they broke from the ocean surface, they’re actually a natural phenomenon of blue ice, according to a report by the Daily Mail. As outer layers of ice melt during the summer months, new layers of ice compress to form the top of the waves. (Photo by Tony Travouillon)

“I walked to these blue icebergs with a group made up of transitioning scientists like me and winter-overs [people who winter in the area] who knew of the location of these beauties,” Travoullion says. “It was just one of the many amazing sights that you can find on the coast of Antarctica.” (Photo by Tony Travouillon)

The blue coloring of the ice comes from tiny bubbles in the ice, which diffuse the red light in color spectrum, and leave only blue light to reflect to the human eye. (Photo by Tony Travouillon)