They Were Taking In a Glacier. Then the Waves Came at Them

A glacier calving led to a seemingly close call in Iceland
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 2, 2019 2:01 PM CDT

That moment when "wow" turns to "eek": Tourists who had been led to the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier in Iceland's Vatnajökull National Park on Sunday got a bit of a scare when they witnessed a calving: a natural process in which a chunk of ice breaks off a glacier's edge. As the hunk of glacier dropped into the water below, big waves began to form. And tour company owner Stephan Mantler tells CNN and Iceland Monitor that he observed his guides were well-placed and the tourists, who had been told what to do in such a situation, were moving out of the way—so he decided to film the "extraordinarily large event," one that was "much closer to the shore than usual." Everyone present was more than OK: No one even got wet, he says. (In famed oceanic hole, a chilling discovery.)

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