8mo ago

World's largest iceberg on crash course with island, putting millions of penguins in danger

news.sky.com

The world's largest iceberg is on a collision course with the British territory of South Georgia - potentially putting millions of penguins and seals in danger.
The trillion-tonne slab of ice, named A23a, broke free from its position last month and started drifting northwards.
The "megaberg" - which is twice the size of Greater London and 130 feet tall - is expected to approach the remote island off Antarctica in the next two to four weeks.

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8mo ago

World's largest iceberg on crash course with island, putting millions of penguins in danger

news.sky.com /story/worlds-largest-iceberg-on-crash-course-with-island-putting-millions-of-penguins-in-danger-13295397

21 comments

twice the size of Greater London and 130 feet tall
Fucking hell.
- Here's a picture:
  
  Thanks! Thats awesome. You can also see it here.
- It's probably 400' deep (i.e. draft) too then.
  It's almost incomprehensibly huge.
  
  During the ice age the size of the Laurentide ice sheet was over 4km (2.5 miles) thick and 13m km² (5m miles²)
  This is completely irrelevant to the discussion at hand, except it's another mind-blowingly huge piece of ice.
- Just the tip?
This sounds like a mechanical engineering test question.
- D) All of the above
This is the plot to Happy Feet 2.
- "The ice taps back"
130 feet tall with 9/10 underwater means about 400 meters thich. Nice. Also :
"The whole ecosystem in the Southern Ocean is very resilient to these events," he wrote. "It has evolved with these icebergs being a factor for hundreds of thousands of years."
- I mean, I kind of take exception to that quote. Wildlife doesn't "evolve" to take into account 1/10,000 year events. That's like saying an animal evolves to deal with meteor strikes. It just doesn't happen. You can't evolve to deal with entire islands being run over and demolished because it just doesn't happen often enough to be a significant selection pressure. It's just bad luck.
  Sure the ecosystem of the ocean will be fine, because icebergs are part of the ocean and part of its ecosystem. But the wildlife within that ocean may be significantly affected like entire populations being wiped out.
  It's like saying global warming isn't an issue because the earth will survive and adapt. Most species alive today will go extinct, but the earth will survive.
  
  There's also this part of the article.
  Experts fear for the island's rich wildlife. If the iceberg gets wedged in the shallow waters close to the island, it could block vital pathways for penguins to get food for themselves and their chicks.
  It's not going to run over the island. It's going to get stuck near it and fuck up their feeding grounds.
  
  Yes, it can happen. Population choke points drive rapid evolution.
- If it's that big, how can it even hit the island? Wouldn't it be grounded long before?
  
  Momentum is a pretty powerful thing.
It's also going to take several years to melt to the point that it's no longer a danger to shipping. And as it melts, it will break up into more and more chunks.
If it gets near shipping lanes it will disrupt commerce for years.
Is this related to the doomsday iceberg that recently broke free? Basically the giant cork holding back the entire ice sheet?

21 comments