Massive iceberg spotted off Australia

[lemit]

An iceberg twice the size of Manhattan discovered 1,700 kilometres off the coast of Australia has prompted a shipping alert.

 

 

CBC News - Technology & Science - Massive iceberg spotted off Australia

[Michaelangelica]

Excellent!

just in time to help cool the Christmas beer.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology issued a shipping alert Friday after a massive iceberg was spotted 1,100 miles (1,700 kilometers) off the country's southwestern coast.

 

Glaciologist Neal Young of the Australian Antarctic Division spotted the iceberg on satellite imaging. It is 12 miles (19 kilometers) long and 5 miles (8 kilometers) wide, and is edging slowly northeastward toward Western Australia state, Young said in a statement.

Australia Issues Shipping Alert Over Giant Iceberg - ABC News

Giant iceberg off Australia breaking up

 

By KRISTEN GELINEAU (AP) – 2 hours ago

 

SYDNEY — A massive iceberg edging slowly toward Australia's southwestern coast is breaking up into hundreds of smaller icebergs as it drifts into warmer waters, creating potentially hazardous conditions for ships trying to navigate the region, a scientist said Tuesday.

 

It looks like they are all over the place, or NH geography is wacko. Macquarie Island, is S. East

Large Antarctic iceberg drifting north

 

-- In what scientists are calling a once-in-a-century event, an iceberg about the size of Washington, D.C., is drifting toward Australia.

It will probably break up and melt before it gets to the coast, but it is an impressive sight for scientists studying seals on Macquarie Island, an Australian nature reserve between New Zealand and Antarctica. One morning they saw a nearly 60-square-mile iceberg on the horizon

.

Large Antarctic iceberg drifting north toward Australia - washingtonpost.com

 

Australian Antarctic Division scientists working on Macquarie Island, about 930 miles south-east of Tasmania, first saw the iceberg last Thursday about five miles off the island’s north-west coast.

 

The iceberg, about 160ft high and 1,640ft long, is probably part of one of several larger icebergs that broke off Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf between 2000 and 2002, Australian Antarctic, Division glaciologist Neal Young said.

 

Several icebergs have been drifting slowly northward toward the island over the past year, he said.

 

Read more: Massive iceberg spotted south of Australia - Evening Express

Massive iceberg spotted south of Australia - Evening Express

 

Wednesday, 25 November 2009 / 3 comments

A flotilla of icebergs descending on New Zealand

by Ben Sandilands

 

Amazing though it might seem to those roasted in the recent South Australian and NSW heat waves, yet another flotilla of icebergs is making good speed toward the south-eastern tip of New Zealand’s South Island.

A flotilla of icebergs descending on New Zealand – Crikey

 

Aussies' iceberg party plans drift away

 

By New Zealand correspondent Kerri Ritchie

 

 

A change of weather has melted the hopes of some Australians who were planning to hold a party on an iceberg which was drifting towards New Zealand.

 

The flotilla of icebergs, which had been drifting towards New Zealand, is now being blown away from the country by strong winds.

Aussies' iceberg party plans drift away - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[maikeru]

I think someone hacked the climate.

[BrianG]

Wow, if they had icebergs back in 1912, the Titanic would have been in big trouble.

[Donk]

Wow, if they had icebergs back in 1912, the Titanic would have been in big trouble.

Were you born snarky, or have you had special training?

[BrianG]

I find spotting large icebergs thousands of miles off Australia's south coast in season, amusing, don't you?

[Donk]

I find spotting large icebergs thousands of miles off Australia's south coast in season, amusing, don't you?

In season? What season are you talking about? According to the article, it broke from the ice shelf over nine years ago, so I don't think the time of year counts for much. Even if it did, I'm not sure if you know it but Australia's in the Southern Hemisphere. They have midsummer day next week :)

 

Do try to remember that this is a science site, not purely a place for you to troll AGW arguments. Sometimes we just like to say "Wow! Look at that!!!" with no particular agenda in mind.

 

My first thought on reading it wasn't "Hey, this proves Global Warming!" It was a quick mental calculation: "19k by 8k by 50m... no, nine-tenths is underwater so 19,000 x 8,000 x 500 cubic metres... that's around 76 TRILLION litres of fresh water... wouldn't it be great if we could get it to the people who need it."

[freeztar]

that's around 76 TRILLION litres of fresh water... wouldn't it be great if we could get it to the people who need it."

 

Indeed. And the people who need it are vodka producers. :)

 

The harvesting of ice is tricky but not terribly sophisticated. During the season, which runs from April to late November, Iceberg Industries sends spotter planes in search of bergs that have drifted into coves, away from the swells of the open ocean. The barge then chugs in, secures itself to its prey, and begins chomping away. Each bite of the grapple picks up about half a ton of ice, which is fed into a crusher and conveyed into the tanks for melting. When the barge is filled to capacity (about 1,200 tons), it returns to the firm's tank farm, on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula, where the meltwater is stored for bottling, brewing, and making vodka. "It's not rocket science," Stamp admits. "You hang on, chew it up, hope for the best, and get out of there before the damn thing rolls over."

 

Stamp says that his company has already completed much of the engineering for its next project—essentially a floating bottling plant. This operation will be centered on what Stamp calls a "mother ship," where the meltwater is to be filtered and bottled. A seventy-five-foot-long iceberg excavator will do the actual harvesting ("It's basically like coal mining," Stamp says), and ice fragments will be suctioned back to the mother ship by a sort of pneumatic tube. "We got the idea from central vacuuming," Stamp says.

The Iceberg Wars - The Atlantic (March 2002)

[TheBigDog]

In season? What season are you talking about? According to the article, it broke from the ice shelf over nine years ago, so I don't think the time of year counts for much. Even if it did, I'm not sure if you know it but Australia's in the Southern Hemisphere. They have midsummer day next week :rolleyes:

 

Do try to remember that this is a science site, not purely a place for you to troll AGW arguments. Sometimes we just like to say "Wow! Look at that!!!" with no particular agenda in mind.

 

My first thought on reading it wasn't "Hey, this proves Global Warming!" It was a quick mental calculation: "19k by 8k by 50m... no, nine-tenths is underwater so 19,000 x 8,000 x 500 cubic metres... that's around 76 TRILLION litres of fresh water... wouldn't it be great if we could get it to the people who need it."

Its not a supply problem, its distribution. That is a pretty good sized frozen lake!

[Michaelangelica]

Home Page - Australian Antarctic Division

B17B iceberg slowly breaking up

 

14 December 2009

 

The giant iceberg, known as B17B, is gradually breaking up as it drifts north and east from Antarctica towards Australia.

 

The total area of B17B has now reduced from 140 square kilometres last week to 115 currently, making the iceberg approximately 18km long by 8 km wide.

 

Satellite image of B17B. Taken 11 December 2009.

Satellite image of B17B. Taken 13 December 2009.

Photo: Courtesy of gsfc

 

 

Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist, Dr Neal Young, has been tracking the iceberg's progress using satellite images from NASA and the European Space Agency.

 

"The iceberg is now at 49.6 degrees S and 108.9 degrees E, so it's actually moving in a more easterly direction now in line with the currents in the ocean to the south of Australia," Dr Young said.

 

"There are now many more smaller icebergs calving off B17B, measuring up to several kilometres in length, and spread over more than a thousand kilometres of ocean" he said.

 

The iceberg is expected to continue tracking in a more easterly direction.

B17B iceberg slowly breaking up - Australian Antarctic Division

 

There is water in Vodka! What a rip off! :)

 

Harvesting H2O ?

Watering Australia from Antarctica