It looked like an iceberg, even zooming in with a professional camera, but it was instead a very intricate mirage which had a local photographer stumped. (submitted photo/Simone Engels)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

iceberg, right ahead!

Top Stories of 2022: Nanoose Bay ‘iceberg’ goes viral

Dec 23, 2022 | 1:43 PM

NANAIMO — Common sense always told her it wasn’t an iceberg floating down the Salish Sea, but Simone Engels struggled to get past what she was seeing.

A Jan. 9 trip to Moorecroft Regional Park in Nanoose Bay for Engels turned into a flurry of activity and media interviews after she photographed what appeared to be a large mass in the water.

Engels said she took multiple looks at the object through her telephoto lens-equipped camera.

““It was so convincing, so real,” she told NanaimoNewsNOW in January. “If you look at the image where I zoomed in, to me it doesn’t look like an image that was fuzzy on the edges, it looked like a real iceberg and it had me completely stumped.”

The rational and logical side of Engels knew it wouldn’t be an iceberg, because if it was she’d likely not be the only person seeing it.

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But she was stumped for an explanation, posting her images to a local social media group.

NanaimoNewsNOW reached out the next day to speak with Engels, and ultimately got the science behind the image from professors at both Nanaimo’s Vancouver Island University, as well as the University of Victoria.

Engels’ iceberg was in fact a mirage, specifically a phenomenon called a “superior mirage”.

“Rays of light get bent downwards so as the observer, we think they’re higher than they actually are,” Colin Goldblatt, an earth and sciences professor at the University of Victoria, said. “It can also help us to see things that are maybe further away or maybe would have been across the horizon if there hadn’t been a mirage.”

The rays of light were reflecting the top of Mt. Cheam, near Chilliwack, some 180 kilometres away.

What followed though for Engels after NanaimoNewsNOW first published her story on Jan. 12 was constant iceberg chatter.

“I got interviews with The Guardian, with CBC, I was on the National on a Sunday evening, on live radio as well. It was an incredible experience, I never in a million years thought it was snowball like this and so many people would be interested.”

Engels said the overall experience was positive and she’s glad her innocent snapshot was able to bring some joy, interest and intrigue to a large audience.

She added the timing of the photo probably helped.

“We were all still going through the pandemic at the time, so I really just thought I wanted to get the story out to encourage people to get out there into the natural world and to be open to see things you might just not expect to see.”

Engels took the experience of doing the interview with NanaimoNewsNOW and other outlets in the days following as a sign to invest more in her photography business locally.

She said she’s out every day with her camera snapping shots but hasn’t spotted another iceberg, yet.

The iceberg turned out to be the peak of Mt. Cheam, near Chilliwack, around 180 kilometres away. (submitted photo/Simone Engels)

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