Friday, November 15, 2013

Massive iceberg could enter shipping lanes

A massive iceberg in Antarctica could enter container-shipping lanes, and UK researchers have been awarded an $80K emergency grant to track it.

Latest images show several kilometers of water between the 270-square-mile iceberg and the Pine Island Glacier it broke away from in July.

The six-month project will also predict the iceberg's movement through the Southern Ocean.

"From the time it had been found that the crack had gone all the way across in July, it had stayed iced-in because it was still winter (in Antarctica)," explained principal investigator Grant Bigg from the University of Sheffield.

"It often takes a while for bergs from this area to get out of Pine Island Bay but once they do that they can either go eastwards along the coast or they can… circle out into the main part of the Southern Ocean."

Prof. Bigg told BBC News that one iceberg was tracked going through The Drake Passage - the body of water between South America's Cape Horn and Antarctica's South Shetland Islands.

If the iceberg follows this path, it would bring the Singapore-size ice island into international shipping lanes.

For more of the BBC story: bbc.co.uk

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