One afternoon after a long day working on the ice, we decided to drink some of the water from a clear blue melt pond.

We inched ourselves to the edge while on our bellies, and slurped up some of the icy cold liquid.  Ah! It was so refreshing!  We smiled and laughed.

Even though we knew we had looked silly, we didn’t care.  It was the most delicious water we had ever drank.  And we knew few people get to have such an experience!

The water in an Arctic melt pond is some of the freshest and cleanest on earth. A melt pond occurs when the snow on top of the ice begins to melt. It forms a depression in the ice that holds the water. The fresh water at the bottom of the pond freezes and clogs all the pores between the ice crystals so the water can’t leak out and prevents it from mixing with the salty sea water below.