An iceberg six times the size of Manhattan is drifting out to sea

Now that's what you call a floater

Mon, 28 Apr, 2014 - 16:53

Conor Hallahan

Scientists are monitoring a giant iceberg that has broken off from a glacier in Antarctica and drifted towards the open sea.

(Iceberg B31 shortly after calving in November 2013)

The monster 'berg - identified as 'B31' calved from the Pine Island glacier in November of last year and has made its way out of Pine Island Bay, a basin of the Amundsen Sea, as the sea ice at the mouth of the bay thinned during the southern hemisphere summer.

Measuring 33km by 20km, the iceberg is six times as big as Manhattan and possibly up to 500m thick.

As the below timelapse video shows, it's also moving into the open ocean.

"While some mass was lost very early on in the life of B-31, it has remained pretty much the same shape since early December and is still about six times the size of Manhattan,” said scientist Grant Bigg of the University of Sheffield, who has been tracking the ice island via satellite imagery and with sensor 'javelins' dropped onto it by plane prior to its calving.

"The iceberg is now well out of Pine Island Bay and will soon join the more general flow in the Southern Ocean, which could be east or west in this region.”

(B31 moving towards the open ocean in December last)

Although it is not currently in an area frequented by sea traffic, the 'berg could cause problems if it drifts into shipping lanes or breaks apart.

“Iceberg calving is a very normal process,” NASA glaciologist Kelly Brunt said on the agency’s website.

(February 5, 2014)

“However, the detachment rift, or crack, that created this iceberg was well upstream of the 30-year average calving front of Pine Island Glacier (PIG), so this a region that warrants monitoring.

"It's floating off into the sea and will get caught up in the current and flow around the Antarctica continent where there are ships."