Operation IceBridge, NASA’s longest-running aerial survey of polar ice, carried a flight over the northern Antarctic Peninsula on Oct. 16, 2018. During the flight, IceBridge senior support scientist Jeremy Harbeck spotted two rectangular icebergs floating among sea ice just off of the Larsen C ice shelf.
“I thought it was pretty interesting; I often see icebergs with relatively straight edges, but I’ve not really seen one before with two corners at such right angles like this one had,” Harbeck said.
The rectangular iceberg appeared to be freshly calved from Larsen C, which in July 2017 released the massive A68 iceberg, a chunk of ice about the size of the state of Delaware.
“I was actually more interested in capturing the A68 iceberg that we were about to fly over, but I thought this rectangular iceberg was visually interesting and fairly photogenic, so on a lark, I just took a couple photos,” Harbeck said.
The flight originated from Punta Arenas, Chile, as part of a five-week-long IceBridge deployment, which began Oct. 10 and is scheduled to conclude Nov. 18.
OMG! We’re being invaded by space aliens! /sarc
Hey, they’ve spend years looking for the ice bridge, they’ve jsut found it !
Sorry, forgot to put the 61 after my name below, don’t want to confuse people. I haven’t cleared history or cookies lately so I don’t know why it didn’t auto fill?
WordPress does not remember my details either.
Hmmmn.
This site hasn’t remember my details for weeks now. Getting kinda irritating, actually…
This has been happening for 3 weeks now
No matter how you slice it, a berg is still a berg, even if you use a drill and shaped charges or a long chainsaw
There is probably a Antarctic Nazi airstrip just below the snow, which caused it fracture along these lines. Now we know where Admiral Byrd landed when he disappeared for a few days. 😉
FAKE
http://www.vukcevic.co.uk/Fake.jpg
Nah … there aren’t any crop circles. Oh! but WAIT! … perhaps new fallen snow covered them up?! Aiiiiieeeeeeeeeeee !!!!
That was my first thought. All this “Global Warming” has uncovered their secret lair, and this flight flew over before they could get it covered back up again!
Nah, they just found some very average photoshopped guff. I’m wondering who and why.
None of the images I’ve seen look like they’ve been photoshop, particularly the video.
OMG! We’re being invaded by space aliens! /sarc
I’m not saying it’s aliens, but it’s aliens 😉
Hmmm?
Always thought H2O had hexagonal crystals.
Only approximately. The angle between two hydrogens is 104.45 degrees, not 120 degrees.
Hexagonal crystals form in ice-I (the most common form of ice) because the H2O molecules are hydrogen-bonded together into roughly cyclohexane chair conformations, an oxygen atom occupying the position of each carbon atom in cyclohexane, C6H12: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclohexane_conformation . Carbon atoms form 4 bonds each, at roughly tetrahedral angles (109.47 degrees). Since oxygen atoms form only 2 covalent bonds each, two of the 4 directions are to covalently bonded hydrogen atoms in an H2O molecule, and the other two directions are in longer “hydrogen bonds” to H atoms in other H2O molecules. Looked at along the C3 axis of symmetry, one sees hexagonal cross-sections, so the 120 degrees is not directly related to the H-O-H bond angle. In ice crystals, the 104.45 degree bond angle in a gas phase (isolated) molecule is opened up to around 106.6 degrees, not quite equal to the tetrahedral angle, so the hydrogen bonded atoms are not all on the same straight line as covalently bonded atoms (see http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/hexagonal_ice.html ).
Geek thread
This appears to be absolute proof that it’s not CAGW, Tom can get rid of the sarc tag.
Two right angles do not make a rectangle. Perhaps someone turned up the power on those ice-measuring lasers.
You should have followed the flickr link. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa_ice/43707491400/in/album-72157702586203404/
I’m climate sceptic, sceptical of everything and anything, just zoom in at the triangle bit just beyond the big ice rectangle; the tip of the triangle is identical to the bit just behind it.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa_ice/43707262740/in/album-72157702586203404/
vukcevic,
If you had bothered to read the description of that photo, it explicitly states it is a composite image to show what the entire berg looks like. Look a the other photos, they look genuine to me. Your claim they are fake does not hold up.
Video fake too?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa_ice/albums/72157702586203404/with/31654112598/
Being gullible is a pre-requisite for Warmists.
Ever heard of CGI?
If you look hard enough at shadows and back ground there are discrepancies and if photos and video were taken with one flyby even two I call BS .
‘If you look hard enough at shadows and back ground there are discrepancies and if photos and video were taken with one flyby even two I call BS .”
really? what frame. what kind of discrepency?
did you measure it? how?
any actual, you know, evidence. or just a kooky knee jerk habit of conspiratorial thinking
it’s a fake
http://www.vukcevic.co.uk/Fake.jpg
vukcevic , I see it. something is not right, two blended photos?
michael
In the close up there is open water right next to the berg. In the photo with the engine in it there is no open water close to the berg. And the open water that is a bit away is not the same shape as the open water in the closeup.
Tom in Florida, there are two icebergs, that’s why the pictures are different.
Got it. You can see the second one just above the engine.
Which would explain why they mention only two right angles, rather than four.
So, no aliens then to help us advance to a more complex stage of evolution. We’re on our own, sans monolith slab.
One day I was feeling crappy, and made a post to that effect. I added the last sentence, “I’m about ready for an alien abduction to be used as a test subject in their rejuvenation experiments!”
I don’t think it took 30 seconds for one of my friends to reply, “With my luck, I’d be the control.”
Red,
Your buddies are not only amusing, but Johnny on the spot. Almost hovering. That’s kind of creepy, but maybe in a good way.
There’s something off with the photo.
I can’t find a copy of it at a website with “nasa” in the URL either. You’d think that this might be a “picture of the day” from NASA.
Still reserving final judgment.
There’s a NASA video also of the squareberg. How did they take that? Looks real to me.
it’s a fake
http://www.vukcevic.co.uk/Fake.jpg
============
caption on the picture:
Tabular Iceberg Panorama
This panorama of the entire tabular iceberg was edited together from two images taken while flying past the berg.
Jeremy Harbeck said he saw 2 rectangular icebergs. One, he said, had 2 corners that were extremely square. It appears the top photo is showing an iceberg with a very straight edge between 2 very square corners, but the far end is not visible.
The 2nd photo shows an iceberg without such a straight edge and with more rounded corners. This may be the 2nd iceberg. If the berg partially visible in the upper left corner of the photo is the far end of the 1st berg, the photo discrepancies go away.
SR
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa_ice/31654112598/in/album-72157702586203404/
Here’s another video of the squareberg:
https://youtu.be/z-lG3fiJqjw
The border and lighting look quite genuine. I doubt that it is a NASA fake – looks real to me.
Its an untested belief of mine, that large blocks are broken off the ice sheet by the effect of tsunami. While the height of the wave may only be a foot or so, it could be enough to snap off a block along the wave front. The shape of the sea floor and an element of chance then decides how the lateral stresses square the block off.
Playing devil’s advocate always raises good discussion, just in case we are not there yet eventually the truth will out.
OK, it’s a cryo-polyhedron.
I think it’s a white flag and, hence, the French base Antarctic base.
Antarctic Nazis have finally surrendered. Kudos for holding out longer than the last Japs.
Wrong.
Two right angles do make a square or a rectangle. Did you not take geometry? A right angle has two legs not one. Now if they had said two corners then you would have a point.
ISWYDT!
(Actually, if they had said, two line segments with a comment endpoint, then you would have a point…)
Very acute of you. Perhaps I’m being obtuse but the iceberg with straight(ish) edges looks like a trapezium to me, and the other, without straight edges, doesn’t have straight edges and is nothing special.
Any idea of that little baby’s dimensions?
It’s a black monolith covered in ice.
Prob’ly has Polar Bears jumping up and down on top of it… 🐵
And beating each other over the head with bones.
This photo looks like its suffered from a bit of photo shopping to me.
Took a look at the enlarged view of the nearside edge of this iceberg and the way this berg meets up with the other ice on the water surface just does not ring true to me. Maybe someone who used to seeing Arctic sea ice could tell me otherwise.
jpg artifacts?
Maybe?
ln the top photo there is a smaller ice berg in the bottom lefthand corner of the photo. Now that smaller ice berg fits in with the scene and looks true to life. Now if you compare that small berg ice to the large main one. Then the main ice berg just does not look right, its looking just far too neat and tidy to what would be expected in a real setting.
I’ve never seen anything like it.
The thing I wonder about is that we can see only 1/10 of it. I wonder what it looks like below the water. Could it be a rectangular prism?
I’ve also never seen a piece of ice that big be that flat. It puts me in mind of a planned WW2 aircraft carrier made of ice. link
Why a surprise, our planet is not only flat but also rectangular, just look at any map.
Flat earth cometh. 😜
There is nothing that this global warming will not stop at.
Now it is rectangularising icebergs!!!
Clearly evidence of polar bears .. they are making landing sites to migrate from the arctic.
If you look very closely you can see the Dutch tug that’s going to pull the slab to Arabia to supplement the fresh water supply. Or did I imagine that?
It’s the RUSSIANS!
OMG!
No, French white flag.
A Chinese aircraft carrier in Antarctic camouflage?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Habakkuk
Thanks John, as they say you learn something every day.
You’re welcome!
I beat Chad by only two minutes.
It’s a stealth Japanese whaling boat.
They should name it Habakkuk, to feed the conspiracy theories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Habakkuk
Soon measuring ice area will be real easy.
Green Peace got up there and sawed it off to add to Global Warming evidence.
L I B.
Does it line up with a coresponding one on the moon…..the pyramids in Egypt or both?😀
Someone call Leonard Nimoy on the Big Phone.
Is the edge ratio 1:4:9?
If I was going to cut one off for towing to Saudi Arabia the lead end would have an equal point. Looks to me like they will waste too much energy dragging it to a desert.
I agree , it’s probably the Saudis that chopped it off and intend to throw if into a well in their back garden.
The BBC, unable to wangle global-warming directly into the story, had to settle for describing it as “This particular ‘berg came from the crumbling Larsen C ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula.”
Like the Larsen C ice shelf hasn’t been crumbling at the edge since the very first day it formed.
It looks like Saskatchewan has frozen over (again).
Wait long enough and weird things happen.
There is no natural law that stops approximate rectangles from occurring so eventually they will.
It’s actually very common just not many of us go there to see it … search “tabular icebergs”.
National geographic had a photo from underwater of a triangular a while back. Let me see if I can find it.
?auto=compress,format&w=1024&h=560&fit=crop
There you go
So if it was equilateral, it would be Ice Cube.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa_ice/albums/72157702586203404/with/31654112598/
video is cool
Thanks!
Way cool in a cold climate.
Tomorrow in the news – Global warming causes square icebergs
Extreme shapes! Clear evidence of man caused warming.
Well if a rectangular calved iceberg isn’t conclusive proof of CAGW and the power of the Magic Molecule, I don’t know what is! Maybe not just an ice shelf the size of Delaware breaking off, but Delaware itself breaking off and drifting out into the Atlantic?
Looks like the new Amazon warehouse
Those Antarctic polar bears are quite creative indeed.
Al Gores Fortress of Solitude and Casino.
Perfect. All we need now is a biiiiig glass for the world’s biggest gin and tonic. Now where can we find a super-sized lemon?
Japanese tourists used to pay top dollar for 40,000 year-old ice, with ancient air released in each bubble burst, in their adult evening beverages in Alaska. But that might have been in a simpler time.
Daily Mail writes about this: “The huge chunk of ice, dubbed iceberg A-68 by scientists, measures 5,800 square kilometers”
“5,800 square kilometers”?! Do these metric ignorants know what a square kilometer is?
Link: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6304057/Mystery-massive-mile-wide-monolith-iceberg.html
5,800 square kilometers is the equivalent of a 76km square, or 50mile square.
I thought that article was not bad for daily tabloid.
Were you thinking that figure referred to the tabular iceberg ? If so you should read more carefully before throwing insults.
Greg,
Daily Mail also says: “She estimated its size to be about a mile wide.”
And 1 mile x 1 mile is 5,800 square kilometers?
I think the Daily Mail has a job wide open for you too 🙂
My conversion table says there are 2.58998811 square Kilometres to 1 square mile, which sounds about right to me.
As I’ve posted below the mile wide tabular berg is not the same as A-68 ice island which is ~5,800 sq km, but is believed to be a small fragment of it.
Yes they do, here’s what they said, apparently you didn’t understand it.
“In early July 2017, a huge crack in Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf caused a massive iceberg to break free
The huge chunk of ice, dubbed iceberg A-68 by scientists, measures 5,800 square kilometers
NASA believe the new ‘monolith’ recently broke off the same shelf
Here’s a video of A-68 breaking off you’ll notice some smaller rectangular fragments breaking off.
http://en.es-static.us/upl/2018/09/iceberg-A68-sept-2018-600.gif
So the chilleans are deploying an ice bridge. How many more rectangular blocks are they going to need?
Hello esteemed “experts”, this is not an iceberg, it is an ice island. Google it! The difference between the two is relatively minor but becomes important when commenting on its shape.
Most ice island have geometric shapes with straight edges. By definition, they are flat-topped. This one is cute but not unexpected.
Not doubting the veracity of what you’re saying. I’m just commenting on what I can see on my screen. It’s the same as posing polar bears balancing on ice cubes.
Gaia is building an icehenge.
Ice should never be squared, as only pi are squared. Ice may be cubed, though.