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What does an icebreaker do? - Exactly that! These specially designed vessels clear paths by pushing straight into frozen-over water or pack ice.

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Strength and power - These are no ordinary ships. Breaking through pack ice requires a strengthened hull, an ice-clearing shape, and extreme below-deck power.

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Polar ice - Antarctic ice is typically 1 to 2 m (3 to 6 ft) thick. Most of the Arctic is covered by sea ice 2 to 3 m (6 to 9 ft) thick. Even with today's modern vessels, conquering this kind of ice takes considerable operational and navigational skills. So, how did they manage back in the day?

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USS Bear - Launched in 1874, the dual steam-powered and sailing ship Bear was a forerunner of modern icebreakers. Among other commissions, she was used by US admiral Richard Byrd on an expedition to the South Polar regions.

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Inhospitable - Icebreaker ships are designed to forge through thick ice and make some of the most inhospitable sea routes accessible. Pictured: the Russian icebreaker Krasin leading an American supply ship into McMurdo Station, a research base on the south tip of Ross Island in Antarctica.

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Keeping trade routes open - It's an icebreaker's job to keep trade routes open where there are either seasonal or permanent ice conditions. Pictured: the Finnish icebreaker Otso escorting a merchant ship in the Baltic Sea. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 3.0)

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Yermak - Maintaining year-round polar sea routes made commercial sense, a fact not lost on maritime traders operating in the late 19th century. Built for the Imperial Russian Navy, Yermak (pictured) was commissioned on October 17, 1898 to become the first polar icebreaker in the world.

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Military purpose - Icebreakers also served an early military purpose. Here, Yermak is photographed assisting the stranded Russian coast defense ship General-Admiral Apraksin, in 1900. Yermak was in service for nearly 70 years before being scrapped in 1964.

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Iceberg removal service - Icebreakers don't only break ice. On some occasions they are required to move the equivalent of mountains, like the US Navy icebreaker U.S.S. Atka seen here in 1964 in Antarctica pushing an iceberg out to sea.

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Freezing seas - Major trade routes that benefit from the services of icebreakers during the freezing winter months include the Baltic Sea, the Saint Lawrence Seaway, the Great Lakes, and the Northern Sea Route, the entire route of which lies in Arctic waters.

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Ice age - According to the Swedish Metereological and Hydrological Institute, Baltic Sea ice coverage in the early months of 2013 was the thickest and most extensive ever on record.

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Channel opening - As this photograph illustrates, icebreakers are essential in keeping commercial shipping on the move in winter. Here, the passenger ship Soderarm sails in a channel through the ice made by an icebreaker as it heads for Husaro in the Stockholm archipelago, Sweden.

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An unforgiving climate - In this image, the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Samuel Risley is seen near Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior, Ontario, participating in an effort to free eight freighters from heavy ice in the eastern region of the lake.

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Trapped in ice - In another episode, the MV Akademik Shokalskiy (pictured) got stranded in Antarctic ice in 2013. An Australian icebreaker's bid to reach the Russian ship, which had been trapped for a week with 74 people onboard, was halted by a fierce blizzard.

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Breaking bad - It's not just commercial shipping that can fall victim to the frigid climate. In November 2019, China's polar icebreaker Xuelong 2 (left) had to break ice for another icebreaker, Xuelong, which became trapped in ice in Prydz Bay, Antarctica.

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Navigable - Eventually Xuelong (in the distance) was able to follow a waterway created by Xuelong 2. But it just goes to show how mighty and unforgiving polar ice can be!

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Nuclear power - The Russians, however, have come up with a boat to crack stubborn pack ice—the nuclear-powered icebreaker! Far more powerful than their diesel counterparts, nuclear icebreakers are used primarily on the Northern Sea Route. Pictured is the Yamal en route to the North Pole. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 2.5)

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Stamp of approval - Launched in 1989 and named after the Yamal Peninsula in northwest Siberia, the icebreaker is also used to ferry tourists to the North Pole. She's commemorated here on a Russian postage stamp.

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The Iceman Cometh! - One of the most bizarre rescue operations ever undertaken by an icebreaker took place in 2015 on a frozen Lake St. Clair, Michigan, when a man (pictured) was intercepted on the ice while trying to walk from Detroit to Canada.

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Rescued - Fortunately he was spotted 2.4 km (1.5 miles) from shore by a lookout assigned to the Coast Guard Cutter Neah Bay, an ice-breaking tug.

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USCGC Healy - The USCGC Healy, pictured at anchor north of Alaska, is the United States' largest and most technologically advanced icebreaker, as well as the US Coast Guard's largest vessel.

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North Pole triumph - Seen here amid the ice at night in the Arctic Ocean, Healy reached the North Pole in September 2015, becoming the first US surface vessel to do so unaccompanied. (Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 4.0)

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World of ice - Coast guard vessels operate year-round throughout the polar regions. Pictured is the Canadian Coast guard's medium icebreaker Henry Larsen off Allen Island in Nunavut, Canada.

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Workload - Resembling a giant mechanical spider, the Healy at work breaking ice. It's also designed to conduct a wide range of research activities.

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A long way from Nome - The Russian-flagged tanker Renda makes its way through Bering Sea ice, 266 km (165 miles) from Nome, Alaska.

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Closer to home - Icebreakers don't just work in the frozen wilderness. Here, the Coast Guard Cutter Wire makes its way through an ice floe in New York Harbor.

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On the river - Icebreakers are often launched to provide safe waterways for river traffic. In fact, prior to ocean-going ships, icebreaking technology was developed on inland canals and rivers. Did you know that the first recorded primitive icebreaker was used by the Belgian town of Bruges in 1392 to help clear the town moat? Pictured: a vessel churning through the ice on the Dahme river in Berlin, Germany.

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Delivery service - The Argentine Navy icebreaker Almirante Irizar cuts through an ice shelf near the Weddell Sea while delivering supplies to some of Argentina's 13 bases on the Antarctic Peninsula.

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Icebreakers and tourism - Icebreakers have found a place in the tourism industry. One of best-known operations is the cruise on the Arctic icebreaker Sampo out of Finnish Lapland. Along the way, guests can swim among the ice.

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Great white wilderness - Siberia's Yenisei river mid-winter, one of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean (the other two being the Ob and the Lena). Solely looking at this image you'd be forgiven in thinking climate change and global warming was a myth...

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Climate change and global warming -

...but it's very real. Glaciers and sea ice is melting at an alarming rate. If climate change isn't taken seriously, there may not be a future need for icebreakers. Of more concern however is the long-term effect on the wildlife that call the freezing polar regions home.

See also: Antarctica: a frozen wilderness of staggering beauty. 

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