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.
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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.