2 Huge Icebergs Break Off Antarctica
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on February 27th, 2010 10:01 am by HL
2 Huge Icebergs Break Off Antarctica
A massive iceberg struck Antarctica, dislodging another giant block of ice from a glacier, Australian and French scientists said Friday. The two icebergs are drifting together about 62 to 93 miles off eastern Antarctica following the collision on Feb. 12 or 13, said Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young. “It gave it a pretty big nudge,” Young said of the 60-mile (97-kilometer) -long iceberg, about the size of Luxembourg, that collided with the giant floating Mertz Glacier and shaved off a new iceberg. “They are now floating right next to each other.” The new iceberg is 48 miles (78 kilometers) long and about 24 miles wide and holds roughly the equivalent of a fifth of the world’s annual total water usage.