We hear a lot about global warming and the affects it may be having on our planet. I read today that an iceberg is headed towards Australia, but this isn’t any ordinary iceberg, if there is such a thing. The massive iceberg, named B17B, is more than twice as big as Manhattan! Officials believe that an iceberg this large has not been spotted in this area since the 19th century.
B17B is 54 square miles and broke off an ice shelf about 10 years ago. It had been floating near Antarctica, but now is headed north. Glaciologist Neal Young of the Australian Antarctic Division said that what makes B17B different is not only that it has drifted so far north, but that it is also still largely intact.
The iceberg, which was spotted using satellite images from NASA and the European Space Agency, now sits a little over 1,000 miles off the coast of West Australia. The warmer water around Australia will melt the iceberg, breaking it up into smaller icebergs.
B17B isn’t the only large iceberg to head north. Last month, scientists noticed an iceberg 500 meters wide by 50 meters tall near Macquarie Island, which is in the southwest corner of the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and Antarctica. Researcher Dean Miller, who was working on the island at the time, pulled out his work binoculars to take a look at the iceberg. He said, “It was a huge floating island of ice basically and, yeah, it was an incredible sight.” The iceberg was so big that it caused Maritime New Zealand to issue navigation warnings to ships in the area. Smaller icebergs drifted along the east coast of New Zealand three years ago, which led to a tourist boom in the area.
Officials have issued another shipping alert for B17B as it approaches the coast. Even after the iceberg hits warmer water and breaks up, the smaller icebergs can still pose a problem for vessels in the waters.
(This image is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties.)
