Icebergs in Atlantic ocean off Labrador and Newfoundland - The spectacular icebergs captured on camera before they disappear

From deep blue to crystal green these giant icebergs are some nature's most awe-inspiring spectacles. Floating just metres from the shore, they are the natural backdrop off the Canadian coast in Newfoundland.They can measure as high as a twenty-storey building and have the potential to weigh in excess of 10 million tonnes.  Amazingly, some of the magnificent blocks are over 15,000 years old. But as the polar ice caps continue to melt, there are fears that these extraordinary sights may vanish forever.

The North Pole has become an island for the first time in human history as climate change has made it possible to circumnavigate the Arctic ice cap.

The historic development was revealed by satellite images taken last week showing that both the north-west and north-east passages have been opened by melting ice.

Prof Mark Serreze, a sea ice specialist at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in the US said the images suggested the Arctic may have entered a "death spiral" caused by global warming.

Shipping companies are already planning to exploit the first simultaneous opening of the routes since the beginning of the last Ice Age 125,000 years ago. The Beluga Group in Germany says it will send the first ship through the north-east passage, around Russia, next year, cutting 4,000 miles off the voyage from Germany to Japan.

Meanwhile, Stephen Harper, Canada's Prime Minister, has announced that ships entering the north-west passage should first report to his government. The routes have previously opened at different times, with the western route opening last year, and the eastern route opening in 2005.

Floating glaciers. Giant ice cubes. Fresh water frozen and sculpted in a thousand shapes and sizes. Icebergs. These sparkling towers of ice dot Newfoundland and Labrador's eastern waters in late spring - May through July - each year.

Born from Greenland glaciers, icebergs arrive in Newfoundland waters after a two year trip, but the life of an iceberg began some 10 to 15 thousand years ago. As snow fell in Greenland, it compacted over the centuries to form huge glaciers extending from mountain to sea. Gravity and spring melt water bring these glaciers to the coast, hanging over the cliffs into the sea. Each spring, thousands of pieces of ice break into the ocean from these glaciers. This is called calving, and is where an iceberg's journey begins.

Icebergs spend their first spring and summer traveling North in the ocean current towards Baffin Bay. Come winter, they freeze amid the pack ice (sea ice) that forms in the North. There, they wait out the winter months until spring breakup releases them from their icy time out. This spring, the ice will move south with the Labrador Current, along the East coast of Baffin Island towards the Davis Straits. Here, they freeze again, spending the long winter months trapped in the pack ice North of Labrador. Spring arrives once more, and most icebergs begin their final trip South through Iceberg Alley.

LIKE graceful sculptures of white rising from the sea, these icebergs are an undeniably beautiful sight.

But as magnificent as the photographs are, according to the man who took them, they are also a dire warning of how our climate is changing.

German travel photographer Rolf Hicker has spent the last 15 years off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, cataloguing the bergs.

As increased temperatures melt the polar ice caps, sea levels are rising and icebergs like these are breaking off into the ocean at a far faster rate than before.

‘ The loss of our Arctic glaciers is a warning signal for us all ’

Robin Webster - Friends Of The Earth

Rolf, 42, says: “I remember for years we hardly saw any icebergs. But in 2007 there was a record number, with four or five times more than there had ever been in one season.