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Iceberg breaks off from Mertz Glacier, could be a threat to marine life
by Ishita Sood - February 27, 2010 - comments
Satellite imagery from European Space Agency's ENVISAT shows the iceberg separation. The discovery was however announced on Friday in Hobart.
According to Australian and French scientists, a gigantic iceberg has broken away from the Mertz Glacier in the Antarctic region, causing another enormous iceberg, B9B, to collide with it.
Both the icebergs could together affect world ocean circulation, and marine life, according to the scientists. The icebergs weigh 860 billion tons and 700 billion tons respectively.
Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young said the new iceberg is 48 miles long and 24 miles wide, and has one-fifth of the world's annual total water usage. It is about the size of Luxembourg.
“It gave it a pretty big nudge. They are now floating right next to each other. We expect them to head west along the Antarctic coastline,” said Young.
The study of the glaciers, undertaken at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre in Hobart, was started in 2007.
Australian scientists working on the study other than Dr. Young were Dr. Rob Massom, and Dr. Barry Giles. Dr. Benoit Legresy is the French scientist working on the study.
B9B broke free from Antarctica in 1987
Two scientists described the iceberg as, “Two large rifts cutting through the southern part of the glacier tongue have been developing over many years. Rifting progressed from the eastern margin of the Mertz Glacier in the 1990s until 2002 when another rift started to develop from the western side.
Recently the two rifts had almost joined and the western rift subsequently became very active, leaving the northern part of the glacier tongue attached like a loose tooth,” they said.
The B9B had broken free from another part of Antarctica in 1987.
“It has been nuzzling and shifting alongside the Mertz for about 18 years before this month's dislodging. It was a slow process,” said Legresy.
Antarctica is like Pandora’s box
Antarctica is like Pandora’s Box as crazy things happen there.
“There are some crazy things going down in Antarctica. It seems kind of weird, but weird things happen,” said Mark Serreze, director of the snow and ice data center, Colorado.
“This happened behind our backs. It's a good thing to be reminded that it's not all about west Antarctica,” said NASA glaciologist Robert Bindschadler.
However, most of the scientists were worried that the region would now be a threat to the marine life.
“The future position of the two giant icebergs will likely affect local ocean circulation, the extent ... of the polynya, sea ice production, and deep water formation. It also has important implications for the marine biology of this region,” read a statement from the Antarctice Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, Tasmania.