Onlookers make their way through large chunks of ice and ice floes washed up along the banks of the Elbe River in northern Germany. Photo / AFP
Onlookers make their way through large chunks of ice and ice floes washed up along the banks of the Elbe River in northern Germany. Photo / AFP
People in northern Germany flocked to the Elbe River today to marvel at giant Arctic-style ice floes that have clogged up a stretch of the waterway, creating a headache for shipping but delighting visitors.
The ice formed upstream in recent weeks during a cold snap that saw temperatures plummetto minus 15C.
Icebreakers have since smashed through the ice, sending the floes downstream where they accumulated at a barrage at Geesthacht, near the river-port of Hamburg, said Tilman Treber from the federal navigation authority (WSV).
Over the past few days, they have piled up and formed jagged piles up to 10m-high - creating ice formations on a scale unseen for about 10 years, Treber told AFP.
The Elbe flows for more than 1000km from mountains in the Czech Republic through Germany and enters the North Sea at Cuxhaven, downstream from Hamburg, Germany’s biggest port.
Dozens of curious locals took advantage of sunny weather to walk among the ice blocks washed up on the riverbank.
Treber said that on this stretch of the river breaking up the ice blocks is more complicated and only possible when the river current is stronger than the tide when it pushes briny water up from the North Sea.
The WSV said it’s difficult to say when the river will become fully navigable, as temperatures are expected to drop below freezing point again.
