City-sized iceberg heading towards Australia
December 10th, 2009 - 3:37 pm ICT by IANSSydney, Dec 10 (IANS) A giant iceberg 19 km long and eight km wide, or 150 square km in area, is drifting slowly north from the Antarctica towards Western Australia.
The iceberg, known as B17B, was spotted by Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) glaciologist Neal Young using satellite images taken by NASA and the European Space Agency.
B17B which had calved from the eastern end of the Ross Ice Shelf nearly 10 years ago, is about 1,700 km south-south-west of the West Australian coast and moving north with the ocean current and prevailing wind, said Young.
“B17B is a very significant one in that it has drifted so far north while still largely intact. It’s one of the biggest sighted at those latitudes,” added Young.
“As the water warms up, the iceberg is slowly breaking up, resulting in hundreds more smaller icebergs in the area,” he said.
Related Stories
- Iceberg, 19 km by 8 km, drifting towards Australia - Dec 09, 2009
- Emergence Of Huge Glaciers Give Rise To Fear Of Antarctica Falling Apart - Mar 08, 2010
- Antarctica Imminently Falling Apart? - Mar 08, 2010
- Gigantic Iceberg Might Cause Climatic Changes - Feb 28, 2010
- Iceberg the size of Luxembourg breaks off from Antarctica - Feb 27, 2010
- Rapid speed of ice shelf spread results in a quicker break-off - Nov 28, 2008
- Antarctic ice growing, not shrinking - Apr 18, 2009
- Iceberg, Dead Ahead! Antarctica is Falling Apart - Mar 09, 2010
- Antarcticas largest icebergs sing eerie songs - Jul 10, 2008
- Increased snowfall in Antarctica linked to Australian drought - Feb 08, 2010
- Global warming taking giant bites out of underbellies of Greenland's glaciers - Feb 15, 2010
- ESA satellite captures iceberg breakup - Mar 15, 2008
- Ice shelves attached to Antarctica are disappearing - Feb 23, 2010
- Antarctic Ice Shelf collapse possibly triggered by ocean waves - Feb 12, 2010
- Why Antarctica isn't melting as much as expected - Jan 10, 2010
- Sci-Tech
Posted in Sci-Tech, |







