In pictures: A city-sized iceberg is born
3 Nov
Ever wondered how icebergs are made? Wonder no more. NASA’s Operation IceBridge has made the first-ever detailed airborne measurements of a major iceberg during the ‘calving’ process (which, in iceberg terms, means something along the lines of ‘being born’).
The rift is about 250 metres apart at its widest & 50-60 metres at its deepest. (Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center)
NASA's DC-8 flew over the 18-mile stretch of the crack last month. (Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center)
The crack you see in the NASA photos appeared recently in the floating ice shelf of Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica (the close-up image shows blocks of ice that tumbled into the crack when the ice shelf split). At the moment, the gaping rift is about 820 feet (or 250 metres) apart at its widest point … and when the large ice chunk breaks free, an iceberg slightly larger than New York City will be created!
This calving is part of a natural process (glaciers give birth to icebergs fairly regularly) – but we might want to remember that scientists like to call Pine Island Glacier (or ‘PIG’!) “the largest source of uncertainty” when it comes to projections of rising global sea levels. In fact, a 2010 study warned that ‘PIG’ had passed its tipping point and was on an irreversible track to lose half of its ice in the next 100 years – an event that could hike global sea levels by 24 centimetres.
Is it possible that this is caused by global warming?
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What caused this giant iceberg?