Big Antarctic iceberg edges out to sea

The giant berg A-68 looks finally to be on the move.
Recent weeks have seen it shuffle back and forth next to the Antarctic ice shelf from which it broke away.
But the latest satellite imagery now indicates the near-6,000 sq km block is swinging out into the Weddell Sea.
A wide stretch of clear water has opened up between the berg's southern end and the remaining Larsen shelf structure, suggesting A-68 is set to swing around and head north.
  • A-68 iceberg opens up clear water
  • Giant iceberg splits from Antarctic
  • Iceberg 'doodles' trace climate history
  • Antarctica's troublesome 'hairdryer winds'
  • The graveyard of giant icebergs
  • This is the direction the Weddell currents should take the iceberg.
    Polar experts expect the trillion-tonne block to essentially bump along the shelf edge until it reaches the great eastward movement of ocean water known as the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
    This would then export what is one of the largest bergs ever recorded out into the South Atlantic.
    How far A-68 actually gets along this predicted path is anyone's guess, however. The berg already shows evidence of fragmentation at its edges.
    These bits - they carry the designation A-68b, A-68c, etc - all still float close to their parent. But in time they will get separated, and it is entirely possible that big segments with deep keels could get anchored in shallow waters and become semi-permanent "ice islands".
    A-68 calved during mid-winter and it required radar satellites - such as Europe's Sentinel-1 spacecraft - with their unique ability to pierce cloud and darkness to keep track of developments.
    With the return now to longer days in the Antarctic, opportunities are increasingly opening up for high-resolution optical satellites to take a close look at the state of the berg.
    And new imager
    y from the Spanish Deimos-2 spacecraft shows how the initial sharp edges of the block's northern-western corner have been lost.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Socrates

Image
Socrates was born 470 BC and 399 BC. He was a  Greek  philosopher and is considered the father of western  philosophy . He tough  Plato  in 428-348 BC, was his most famous student and would teach  Aristotle  in 384-322 BC ,who would then tutor  Alexander the Great  in 356-323 BC. By this progression,  Greek philosophy , as first developed by Socrates. It was spread throughout the known world during  Alexander 's conquests.  Socrates' historicity has never been challenged but what precisely.  Although Socrates is generally regarded as initiating the discipline of philosophy in the West, most of what we know of him comes from Plato and so this honor is, rightly, challenged. Many different schools of philosophy were founded by Socrates' student and his influence would be felt for generations and even to the present day.  He studied  music , gymnastics, and grammar in his youth (the common subjects of study for a young Greek) and followed his father's profession as a sc
Read more

Mc Mahon line

Image
Encyclopedia Britannica Mc Mahon line frontier between Tibet and Assam in British India,  negotiated between Tibet and Great Britain at the end of the shimla conference ( October 1913- july 1914) and named for the chief British negotiator, Sir Henry  Mc Mahon.  It runs from the eastern border of Bhutan along the crest of the Himalayas until it reaches the great bend in the emerges from its Tibetan course into the Assam Valley.  Delegrate of the Chinese republication government also attended the shimla conference,  but they refused to sign the principal agreement on the status and boundaries of Tibet on the ground that Tibet was subordinate to China and had not the power to make treaties. The Chinese have maintained this position to the present day and also have claimed that Chinese territory extends southward to the base of the Himalayas foot hills. This frontier controversy with independent India let to the sino-Indian hostilities of October November 1962 . In the conflict the
Read more

Library

Image
Library came from Latin word liber which means Books and library is the old French word. In Greek and Roman language , the word is bibliotheca library is a place where group of collections of books and or other print or non-print materials organized and maintained for use like books,  journals, flims, archives, DVD, DC, research material, thesis, newspaper of different language and years e.c.t . It's a collection of sources of information and knowledge. Different places has different types library according to there need and according there types of libraries. Children library, Public library,  Special library and Digital library which is easier to gain information from anywhere. EARLY LIBRARIES Early libraries consisted of archives materials (writing material of that time)  such as Clay tables,  cuneiform , script,  papyrus,  vellum e.c.t . Those libraries are unique and archives for today ,which came from the legendary and great people who not only work for it but als
Read more