Dye "Bomb" Away!. Silhouetted in the rear cargo doorway of a Coast Guard HC 130-B plane, a crew member drops a dye "bomb" on an iceberg target off the coast of Labrador. The bomb is a one gallon glass jug containing a mixture of calcium chloride pellets and rhodamine "B" dye. As the jug smashes against the iceberg, the calcium chloride melts grooves into the berg allowing the vermillion rhodamine dye to penetrate from one-half to one full inch deep into the ice. The berg is marked for future identification with a stain that lasts until the berg reaches past that depth of melting stage. Th
Dye "Bomb" Away!. Silhouetted in the rear cargo doorway of a Coast Guard HC 130-B plane, a crew member drops a dye "bomb" on an iceberg target off the coast of Labrador. The bomb is a one gallon glass jug containing a mixture of calcium chloride pellets and rhodamine "B" dye. As the jug smashes against the iceberg, the calcium chloride melts grooves into the berg allowing the vermillion rhodamine dye to penetrate from one-half to one full inch deep into the ice. The berg is marked for future identification with a stain that lasts until the berg reaches past that depth of melting stage. This method of iceberg marking, used for the first time on the 1966 International Ice Patrol, enabled Coast Guard observers to more accurately determine rate of drift and measure rates of deterioration for long periods. Vermilion dye marked icebergs were readily identifiable even after more than two weeks of time lapse between bombing of the target and aerial tracking. The calcium chloride-rhodamine "B" dye bombs was developed by the Coast Guard Oceanographic Unit, Washington During the 1965 Ice Patrol, the Unit initiated marking of icebergs for tracking by arrows tipped with tubes of dye, shot by an archer from the Coast Guard vessel Evergreen.
Size: 5697px × 4758px
Photo credit: © NB/USC / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 17-a2-187, 26-, coast, guard, history, job, rdss, rg
