Greenland 'iceberg tsunami' filmed aboard boat

Three boaterskeen to get an intimatelook at a glacier in Greenland got a muchcloser encounter than they expected last week, when an enormous ice sheet came thundering down, creating an "iceberg tsunami" that pounded their ship with murky water.

Jens Mller was operating aprivate glacier tour near the central-western town of Sisimiut with his uncle when the wall of ice began to crumble.

Mller, who happened to be filming when the incident happened, kept on rolling even as the wave of water and ice began hurtling towards their retreating boat.

"This is the wildest thing I've ever tried in my life," he can be heard saying in the footage, moments after the close call. "I've never been this close to dying. I've never been this close to dying before."

Mller posted the videoIcebergtsunami gone wild! to YouTube, where it has already loggednearly 1.4 millionviews since July 19.

Speaking to CBC Radio's As It Happens, he saidthe only other passenger sailing with them, an Australian tourist, remained composed throughout the ordeal.

'I just thought it was amazing'

"The Australian woman, Sarah, said she didn'teven panic.I was really amazed.A lot of people maybe would start crying or losing their minds," he said.

Mller said his only clue that "something big" was about to occur was when he noticed a few birds flying away from the glacier he was filming. Moments later, he heard the ice cracking andsaw the crashing wall of ice create waves nearly two metres high.

"When that happened, I just thought it was amazing," he said, adding that the glacier was up to 40 metres tall. "I wasn't really thinking about how dangerous it could be.I just wanted to film,I just wanted to see how it looks like."

While the trio felt lucky to escape unharmed, Mller said it wasn't his uncle's firstshowdown with big chunks of falling ice.

"He was sailing with some friends, fishing for Arctic char, when a hugeI think it was from an iceberg, not a glacier a huge chunk fell off and created an even bigger wave," he said.

"When you're a fisherman and you live in these kinds of areas, it's pretty lucky that you can experience something like that."