Antarctic iceberg wanders a long way

A HUGE iceberg has been spotted off Macquarie Island, halfway between Antarctica and Australia.

The iceberg, estimated to be 500m long and 50m high, was spotted about 8km north-west of the island by Australian Antarctic Division expeditioners this week.

Fur seal biologist Dean Miller was the first to see the iceberg while on his way to visit a seal colony at the island's North Head.

"I've never seen anything like it - we looked out to the horizon and just saw this huge floating island of ice," Dr Miller said on the AAD website.

www.news.com.au...

Interesting to see where it travels to

Originally posted by MissMegs

A HUGE iceberg has been spotted off Macquarie Island, halfway between Antarctica and Australia.

The iceberg, estimated to be 500m long and 50m high, was spotted about 8km north-west of the island by Australian Antarctic Division expeditioners this week.

Fur seal biologist Dean Miller was the first to see the iceberg while on his way to visit a seal colony at the island's North Head.

"I've never seen anything like it - we looked out to the horizon and just saw this huge floating island of ice," Dr Miller said on the AAD website.

www.news.com.au...

Interesting to see where it travels to

That's awesome. I want to hop on and ride it. That would be fun.

Originally posted by Phlynx
That's awesome. I want to hop on and ride it. That would be fun.

Probably not ... it will move exremely slow for a while and start to break up in a few months. Not to mention what would you do? Sit on ice and watch the water go by? I am just messing with you. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a more common occurence in the next few years.

www.themercury.com.au...

Theres a pic here

That is insane looking! What a beast. Its 400 feet longer than the empire state building is tall!

It also looks oddly shaped.

woah thats one mean lookin piece of ice. dunno about you guys but it kinda reminds me of the independence day ship.

hmm maybe its another of lex luthors new islands

[edit on 6-11-2009 by jaguar84]

reply to post by MissMegs


Wow, imagine seeing that in the flesh ... what a beast !

Thanks for posting the pic. Woody

hey slow down it's just some big ice cube for a kiwi drink


... seriously damn big !

We should tow it back to Australia and pour it in some of the dams,

Or make a huge icy cold swimming pool.....summers pretty much here

Quite unusual to see one as far as Macquarie Island

Originally posted by MissMegs
www.themercury.com.au...

Theres a pic here

It's a big, frozen BORG berg!

It's a Borg ICE-cube!

Resistance is futile!

[edit on 6-11-2009 by nikiano]

[edit on 6-11-2009 by nikiano]

It almost resembles a Pykrete Ice ship, proposed during WWII, an ice ship made by mixing sawdust/wood pulp with sea water and freezing it using an onboard refrigeration system (see Project Habbakuk), as long as it was kept frozen it was pretty strong.

I am dismayed by its almost precise shape, as if it was purposely cut out of an ice shelf and set adrift. Do you think global warming chicken littles will use this as a talking point in trying to convince people we need the carbon tax treaty signed into law?

On another subject, it would, in my opinion, be a great way to ship clean water to Australia or anywhere else, for that matter. The Earth is almost three quarters water, and cities around the world are claiming we don't have enough. And they are outlawing rain collecting. There is something fishy going on in the world of climate control. I don't like it.

But I do like your post on this. Thank you for sharing it with us. Very cool.

reply to post by Nyhee


Funny thing is? The company that was outlawing rain collecting in Bolivia - Bechtel - is also spending money over fist to convince you climate change is made up?

Food for thought

Wow, and we are only seeing 1/3 of this beast.

I wonder how such a large chunk of ice like this could break off. The ice shelves that have been breaking off don't look that tall. Did this think fall into the ocean? If it fell into the ocean, I would think it cause one huge wave.

Originally posted by TheWalkingFox
reply to post by Nyhee

 

Funny thing is? The company that was outlawing rain collecting in Bolivia - Bechtel - is also spending money over fist to convince you climate change is made up?

Food for thought

looks like they are playing on both sides of the issue:

www.bechtel.com...

I checked out whether this was the biggest iceberg ever, this site listed below says there was one as tall as the Washington Monument. Wow.

www.infoplease.com...

An iceberg floated as far as new zealands' shores in 2006 for the first time ever.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Last year, icebergs were seen in New Zealand water for the first time in 56 years, but couldn't be seen from the shore. This year one was visible from Dunedin on South Island on Thursday

pretty cool! its not something you see every day!!

Originally posted by grantbeed
An iceberg floated as far as new zealands' shores in 2006 for the first time ever.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Last year, icebergs were seen in New Zealand water for the first time in 56 years, but couldn't be seen from the shore. This year one was visible from Dunedin on South Island on Thursday

pretty cool! its not something you see every day!!

Another thread started on this here. I'll quote my post there as it is relevant here too.

Originally posted by Curious and Concerned
As far as the OP goes, this is certainly nothing remarkable or unprecedented. A few years ago in 2006 we had a large iceberg visible off the coast of New Zealand (where I call home

).

Iceberg off New Zealand becomes tourist mecca

This iceberg became a tourist attraction, with people flying out to it and landing on it in helicopters. Quite a novelty, really.

I'd also just like to point out an error in the news report from the above link. Upon reading I noticed this. This is the opening paragraph.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - An iceberg has been spotted from the New Zealand shore for the first time in living memory, drawing tourists via helicopter and scientists who are trying to determine where it and several other giant chunks drifting in the country's waters originated from.

Then it goes on to say...

Williams said the last time an iceberg was visible from the New Zealand shore was June 1931.

I guess they don't classify 1931 as within living memory. But the article does mention that scientists say it is impossible to attribute the iceberg to global warming.

So this recent iceberg is barely half way to the position of the iceberg from 06, but I can just see it being attributed to global warming by some.

Originally posted by Curious and Concerned
I guess they don't classify 1931 as within living memory. But the article does mention that scientists say it is impossible to attribute the iceberg to global warming.

So this recent iceberg is barely half way to the position of the iceberg from 06, but I can just see it being attributed to global warming by some.

Well, you'd have to be over 80 years old to have witnessed the last iceberg... so for the vast majority of people, it's not living memory. But yeah, someone in NZ might be alive that saw it...

This iceberg can definitely be attributed to global warming. The warming of the Arctic/Antarctic ice caps is accelerated more than the rest of the world. This points directly to a greenhouse effect rather than any kind of solar output or other natural cycle. The source of these recent icebergs was a large shelf breaking off of Antarctica in 2000-2002. That was a HUGE ice shelf, and those things don't just break off without something like global warming to give em a nice hefty push into the ocean.

Originally posted by NoHierarchy
This iceberg can definitely be attributed to global warming. The warming of the Arctic/Antarctic ice caps is accelerated more than the rest of the world. This points directly to a greenhouse effect rather than any kind of solar output or other natural cycle. The source of these recent icebergs was a large shelf breaking off of Antarctica in 2000-2002. That was a HUGE ice shelf, and those things don't just break off without something like global warming to give em a nice hefty push into the ocean.

Ok, I posted a article which explains that scientists have stated that there is no way this could be blamed on global warming. Are you saying you know something the scientists don't know?

I guess (you think) you know where it came from to, something else the scientists didn't know. You must have some new information which is unknown to scientists. Care to post it?

Also, you might want to research (oh hang on, you seem to know everything already) past ice shelf collapses, and try and blame those on the greenhouse effect too

Also, much of Antarctica has not warmed considerably, with some parts cooling, but if you could post this evidence you seem to have, please do.

Originally posted by Curious and Concerned
Ok, I posted a article which explains that scientists have stated that there is no way this could be blamed on global warming. Are you saying you know something the scientists don't know?

I guess (you think) you know where it came from to, something else the scientists didn't know. You must have some new information which is unknown to scientists. Care to post it?

Also, you might want to research (oh hang on, you seem to know everything already) past ice shelf collapses, and try and blame those on the greenhouse effect too

Also, much of Antarctica has not warmed considerably, with some parts cooling, but if you could post this evidence you seem to have, please do.

Haha wow, you're quite the BSer aren'tcha?

I don't see any article where scientists say they're baffled as to where these came from. Please refresh my memory, sir. However, from the articles/videos I've read/seen, the scientists repeatedly state that these icebergs are part of a larger chunk that broke off of Antarctica in 2000-2002. I assure you I'm not pulling those figures out of my arse. They certainly didn't appear out of thin air now, did they? Scientists have been following the movement of these large icebergs since they broke off the Antarctic shelf. These aren't your run-of-the mill ice cubes, these are quite sizable and far-traveling chunks.

Since you're a skeptic of global warming, I doubt you follow the hard science too much, so to enlighten you, the recent ice shelf collapses have been quite large and unprecedented. And to say they're not proven to be attributed to global warming is akin to saying the thunder cannot be proven to be attributed to the lightning. Scientists who study these ice shelves know that global warming is a major factor in weakening the shelves and causing them to break off/slip into the ocean.