Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Giant iceberg blogging
This satellite image taken May 16, 2005 shows the bottle-shaped B-15A iceberg adjacent to the landfast Aviator Glacier ice tongue, toward the top of the image. The Drygalski ice tongue, near the bottom, was struck a glancing blow by the drifting B-15A a month ago. Pieces of Drygalski broken off by the blow can be seen drifting through the sea on either side of B-15A. Credit: ESA/ Envisat.
A huge wandering iceberg is tearing up the Antarctic like a slow-moving bull in a frozen China shop.
The roaving destructor, named B-15A, slammed into the Drygalski ice tongue a month ago and broke off at least two city-sized chunks. Now it is poised to strike another feature sticking out from the continent.
At 71 miles (115 kilometers) long, B-15A is the largest free-floating object in the world.
Why B-15A? It broke off from B-15.
The straight news articles are not yet blaming this mother of all 'bergs on global warming, but there is, of course, an environmental angle. If it gets stuck, ice will pile up behind it, which may "thwart" animals that need to move from land to the open sea.
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