icebergs

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World's Largest Iceberg Escapes Its Life Preserver

A23a is out of the Taylor column off Antarctica and on its way north toward South Georgia Island

(Newser) - After months spinning on the spot, the Antarctic iceberg that refuses to die might now, at 38 years old, be on its final legs. Officially known as A23a, the world's largest iceberg, a little larger than Rhode Island, has shifted out of the swirling vortex of water in which...

World's Largest Iceberg No Longer Headed to 'Oblivion'

At least not yet: A23a, trapped in a water vortex, is expected to survive for years more

(Newser) - To be an iceberg is to be on the verge of death. Once broken off a glacier or ice shelf, icebergs typically melt within a few years. But the world's largest iceberg, which appeared to be on a slow death march late last year, is now expected to survive...

World's Biggest Iceberg Is on Its Death March

After breaking free of Antarctica, A23a receives visitors en route to the 'iceberg graveyard'

(Newser) - Scientists just got an up-close look at the world's largest iceberg , now on a slow march to its death. The iceberg that hosted a Soviet research station before breaking off Antarctica's Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986 and becoming lodged on the floor of the Weddell Sea lost its...

World's Largest Iceberg Is Finally on the Move

A23a was stuck on seafloor near Antarctica for decades

(Newser) - An iceberg bigger than some small countries has broken loose from the floor of Antarctica's Weddell Sea and is on the move for the first time in nearly 40 years. At almost 1,500 square miles in area—twice as big as New York City and Los Angeles combined—...

The Iceberg That Sank the Titanic Was Oddly Persistent

It lasted far longer than most icebergs survive

(Newser) - It could be argued that the Titanic was the most incredible ship to ever sink. The same adjective could be applied to the iceberg that sank it. Writing for Smithsonian , Daniel Stone dives into what was unusual about this particular iceberg, which cleaved itself from Greenland in 1909. "This...

Behold, the World's (New) Biggest Iceberg

Newly calved A-76 is in the Antarctic

(Newser) - A giant chunk of ice has broken off from an ice shelf in the Antarctic, so gigantic that it now qualifies as the world's biggest iceberg, according to the European Space Agency . The berg named A-76 "calved" from the Ronne Ice Shelf in the Weddell Sea. It's...

Giant Iceberg on Collision Course With Island

Antarctica's South Georgia isle is hoping for a course correction soon

(Newser) - An Antarctic island could soon meet an enormous and unwelcome visitor. An iceberg about the size of Delaware looks to be heading for British Overseas Territory of South Georgia. The iceberg known as A-68A separated from the Larsen C ice shelf in July 2017. It's lost a couple of...

She Posed for a Pic on an Iceberg. Then It Began to Float Away

77-year-old Judith Streng was rescued by a boat captain in Iceland

(Newser) - "My grandmother almost got lost at sea in Iceland today lmaoooo" isn't a tweet you typically see on Twitter, but one young lady felt compelled to share the photos of her grandma drifting away into the ocean while perched on a throne-shaped iceberg. The Washington Post reports on...

Fresh Iceberg Looks Strangely Rectangular
This Iceberg Looks
a Little Unusual
Oct 23, 2018 11:27 AM CDT

This Iceberg Looks a Little Unusual

NASA takes image of a rectangular iceberg believed to have come from Antarctic ice shelf

(Newser) - As far as icebergs go, this one is oddly perfect. NASA has shared a photo of a rectangular iceberg floating in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica, its flat top and straight edges appearing so exact as to suggest Mother Nature used a saw, per CTV News . The BBC explains that...

Greenland Villagers Flee as Giant Iceberg Approaches

The giant hunk of ice could cause flooding as it approaches the town of Innaarsuit

(Newser) - A huge iceberg heading for a tiny Greenland town has sent villagers fleeing. Per Newsweek , the berg is so big it found itself lodged on the sea floor just beside the town of Innaarsuit, where the around 170 residents fear flooding could occur as chunks fall into the sea. The...

$50K Iceberg Contest Leads to 'Flabbergasting' Response

All it takes is an algorithm for analyzing satellite data

(Newser) - Crowdsourcing has been used to help make everything from movies to music recordings, and now it just might help figure out how best to avoid icebergs. The Centre for Cold Ocean Research Engineering and Norwegian energy company Statoil recently kicked off the Iceberg Classifier Challenge to find an "algorithm...

We're Going to Need New Maps for Antarctica
So Just How Big Is
That New Iceberg?
the rundown
Jul 12, 2017 12:31 PM CDT

So Just How Big Is That New Iceberg?

Comparisons aplenty, but no consensus on whether climate change is culprit

(Newser) - Welcome, iceberg A68 . The trillion-ton chunk of ice broke off from an Antarctic ice shelf at some point over the last few days and is now officially its own entity. If "trillion-ton" is a little hard to grasp (more on that below), just know that the long-expected breakaway means...

One of the World's Biggest Icebergs Just Broke Off

The chunk from Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica is in top 10

(Newser) - The world has a new iceberg, and it's believed to be one of the 10 biggest in history. A huge chunk of the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica has finally broken off, reports the BBC . A satellite spotted the break on Wednesday, and it probably wasn't difficult:...

Antarctica About to Lose 1 of Biggest Icebergs Ever

A 124-mile-long ice crack grew more than 10 miles over just 6 days

(Newser) - Experts say one of the biggest icebergs in recorded history—it would be about the size of Delaware—is "very close" to separating from Antarctica, USA Today reports. According to the BBC , a 124-mile-long crack on the Larsen C Ice Shelf grew more than 10 miles over just six...

Town Suddenly Dwarfed by Massive Iceberg

The iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland is 150 feet at its tallest

(Newser) - A small town on the coast of Newfoundland is—in the words of one local—suddenly "swarming with people" after a huge iceberg recently set up shop there, the CBC reports. The iceberg—150 feet above the water at its tallest point—got stuck in the shallow waters off...

Patrol Tasked With Saving Ships Issues Iceberg Warning

Some 450 icebergs were floating near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland

(Newser) - An unusually large swarm of icebergs has drifted into North Atlantic shipping lanes over the past week, forcing vessels to slow to a crawl or take massive detours. Experts tell the AP that unusually strong counter-clockwise winds are drawing the icebergs south, with the US Coast Guard's International Ice...

Delaware-Sized Iceberg Clings to Shelf by 'a Thread'

It's expected to break off Larsen C within months

(Newser) - A chunk of ice the size of Delaware is clinging to an Antarctic ice shelf by "a thread" that could snap at any moment and create one of the 10 largest icebergs ever recorded, researchers say. Following the collapse of the nearby Larsen A ice shelf in the Weddell...

Photo, Note About Titanic Iceberg Emerge

They're both going up for auction

(Newser) - A photo of what could be history's deadliest iceberg is up for auction after spending nearly a century on a wall in the offices of the law firm that represented the Titanic's owners. There are other photos in existence of the iceberg believed to have sunk the huge...

Antarctic Iceberg Is 6 Times Size of Manhattan

Could pose shipping problems in Antarctic winter

(Newser) - Last year, a huge chunk of ice broke off of Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica—and an iceberg six times the size of Manhattan was born. Dubbed B31, the iceberg "is now well out of Pine Island Bay and will soon join the more general flow in the Southern...

Study Sinks One Titanic Iceberg Theory

1912 wasn't a year packed with huge crop of icebergs

(Newser) - The year the Titanic sank wasn't one with "an enormously large crop of icebergs" as has long been believed, according to new research. Researchers who analyzed Coast Guard data going back to 1900 found that 1912 had a relatively large but by no means exceptional number of icebergs...

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