The mystery of Antarctica's green icebergs finally solved

Antarctica's mysterious green icebergs have been baffling the scientific and nautical community since the early 1900s, but now researchers may have discovered the reason behind their eerie emerald hue.

New findings reveal the icebergs' strange green colour is the result of iron oxides in rock dust from the mainland.

The results, published in the Journal for Geophysical Research in January, come off the back of a research trip in 2016, which saw scientists travel to the Amery Ice Shelf in East Antarctica.

Interestingly, there's more to the shade of green than meets the eye, as these coloured icebergs serve a more practical role of carrying iron to help feed organisms in the ocean as they float, according to researchers.

Lead author of the study, University of Washington Glaciologist Stephen Warren, said in a statement the phenomenon was akin to taking a package to the post office.

"The iceberg can deliver this iron out into the ocean far away, and then melt and deliver it to the phytoplankton that can use it as a nutrient."

Warren analysed samples and found that the green ice was made from marine ice, created when ocean water freezes below an ice shelf.

The marine ice melds with iron oxides via a "glacial flour" (essentially fine particles of rock created from the grinding of bedrock against glaciers), rendering it a green-ish colour.