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March 29, 2006
MASSIVE
ICEBERG BEARS DOWN ON ANTARCTIC ICE TONGUE
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The iceberg,
known to scientists as C-16
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A monstrous iceberg -
nearly as large as New York's Long Island - has barreled along
the Antarctic coastline, coming to a stop at a well-known
geographic feature of Antarctica, a floating tongue of ice
hitched to the Ross Ice Shelf. The iceberg, known to scientists
as C-16, is being monitored by satellite by scientists at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison's Antarctic Meteorological
Research Center (AMRC). Currently, it is cushioned by sea ice
from colliding with a feature known as the Drygalski Ice Tongue,
a spit of ice that protrudes 50 miles into the ocean. Scientists
are unsure of how long the iceberg will stay moored next to the
ice tongue, or what damage it may do. Should the tongue break
loose from its hold on the Ross Ice Shelf, it could alter ocean
currents along the Scott Coast of Antarctica and would change the
region's climate, according to meteorologist George Weidner of
UW-Madison's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.
C-16 is being monitored by the
ARMC, an arm of UW-Madison's Space Science and Engineering
Center, under the direction of meteorologist Shelley Knuth. Knuth
is creating new images of C-16 daily, showing its migration in
the Ross Sea. Both C-16 and the Drygalski Ice Tongue have
automated weather stations and Global Positioning System
transmitters installed by teams of scientists from UW-Madison and
the University of Chicago.
University of Chicago
glaciologist Douglas MacAyeal notes that another large iceberg,
B15-A, came dangerously close to whacking the Drygalski Ice
Tongue last year.
Source
/ Credit: University of Wisconsin, Madison
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