It sounds like a fantasy come true, a remote beach near the Arctic strewn with giant sparkling diamonds, or at least what appear to be diamonds.
This heavenly vision is a beach in Iceland that looks as if a giant jewellery thief has spilt his loot in a hurry, but the gems are actually very clear chunks of ice. The ice starts off in a nearby glacier called Breidamerkurjokull, and the tongue of the glacier creates a production line of ice that gradually edges towards a lagoon where icebergs calve in the water. The ice then gets polished into smooth and weird shapes before washing up on the nearby beach, which is made of black volcanic sand, a display that makes the ice look like giant diamonds spread out on a black velvet drape in a jewellery shop window. And because the ice is unusually pure it sparkles like diamonds that can change colour during the day, most notably with red or orange at dawn and dusk. But most surreal of all is when an aurora lights up the night sky and makes the ice glow in psychedelic colours ranging from greens to reds or pinks.
A similar phenomenon of jewellery ice can also be seen at a beach in Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan. The mouth of the Tokachi River freezes over in the depths of winter and because the river has crystal-clear water it produces exceptionally pure and transparent ice before it breaks off into the sea. There the ice gets polished into smooth shapes by waves grinding the blocks of ice together before washing up on the nearby Otsu beach. There the ice can turn through a kaleidoscope of colours during the day depending on the colour of the sky, including blue, sapphire or turquoise. And the best time of year to see the ice jewels is in the freezing cold of January and February. For the best news about the ice, residents in Toyokoro, the town near the beach, often post frequent updates about the state of the ice on the town’s website.