They look strange, out of place — and they are. Because they’re
not from around here. The odd-shaped stones and boulders that
pepper the flat, dark, silty bottom here at nearly 1,800 feet
look like meteorites, each surrounded by a wide, shallow crater.
They’re not from outer space, but many have traveled a vast
distance on Earth — hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles, over
millennia. And now my sub is face to face with one of three I’d
encounter on our first dive in Zhemchug Canyon yesterday
(Saturday) afternoon. They’re called “drop stones” and it’s
icebergs that do the dropping. As glaciers move across the land,
rocks become incorporated into the glacial ice. Once the
glaciers find the coast, they “calve” into ice bergs and travel
vast distances floating upon the ocean, melting along the way
and eventually, releasing their rocky payload. One might think
of a rock, even a hefty one, falling to the bottom of the vast
Bering Sea as one of the more inconsequential events in the
universe. But if you’re tiny, liv