For those who can get here in summer, this waters provide a feast of epic proportions.
But the good times will be very short, a problem that traces all life in the polar regions.
Journeying south across the Arctic ocean, the first land you reach is Greenland, the largest island in the world.
Despite its name, Greenland is mostly white, covered by a giant ice sheet, six times the size of United Kingdom.
In the middle of the island, the ice is nearly two miles thick.
It is a bleak, quiet world. Sapphire-blue, melt lakes are the first sign that the dynamic process is underway.
Each lake forms in a matter of days, expanding until it's miles across and starts to overflow.
The slow water then carves its way through the ice.
The water crosses through an icy delta, like blood along the arteries of a cold-blooded monster, a monster that is stirring.
And without warning the water suddenly plunges down an open shaft, falling a vertical mile into the heart of the ice sheet.
This melt water has a surprising effect. It lubricates the junction between the ice and the rock floor beneath, so the entire ice sheet is now on the move, sliding down hill into the ocean.
n. (河流的)三角洲