After Breaking Free, World's Largest Iceberg Is Stuck Spinning in Circles (nytimes.com) 20
For more than 30 years, the world's largest iceberg was stuck in the Antarctic. Five times the size of New York City's land area and more than 1,000 feet deep, the mammoth piece of ice finally became loose in 2020 and began a slow drift toward the Southern Ocean. Now, A23a, as it's known, is spinning in place. From a report: After leaving Antarctic waters, the iceberg got stuck in a vortex over a seamount, or an underwater mountain. Imagine a 1,400-square-mile piece of ice as deep as the Empire State Building spinning slowly but steadily enough to fully rotate it on its head over the course of about 24 days. The iceberg is spinning near the South Orkney Islands, about 375 miles northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula, "maintaining a chill 15 degree rotation per day," the British Antarctic Survey, the United Kingdom's polar research institute, said on social media.
"It's basically just sitting there, spinning around and it will very slowly melt as long as it stays there," said Alex Brearley, a physical oceanographer and head of the Open Oceans research group at the British Antarctic Survey. "What we don't know is how quickly it will actually come out of this." A23a has been embroiled in drama since the start, a trait it picked up from its parent-berg. A23, which was even bigger than A23a, was one of three icebergs that broke off, or calved, from the Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986. At the time of the calving, A23 was home to a Soviet Union research center and researchers eventually had to abandon the base. A23a broke off later that year and hit bottom in the Weddell Sea, where it would remain for 34 more years.
"It's basically just sitting there, spinning around and it will very slowly melt as long as it stays there," said Alex Brearley, a physical oceanographer and head of the Open Oceans research group at the British Antarctic Survey. "What we don't know is how quickly it will actually come out of this." A23a has been embroiled in drama since the start, a trait it picked up from its parent-berg. A23, which was even bigger than A23a, was one of three icebergs that broke off, or calved, from the Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986. At the time of the calving, A23 was home to a Soviet Union research center and researchers eventually had to abandon the base. A23a broke off later that year and hit bottom in the Weddell Sea, where it would remain for 34 more years.
15 degrees each day? (Score:2)
Re: 15 degrees each day? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The A23a glacier weighs 10^15 kg using back-of-the-envelope calculations. It is currently trapped in the Weddell Sea, about a 1000 km from where it calved, which is roughly 1/10 the distance from the pole to the equator. It represents about .01% of the Weddell Sea's mass, again using quick-and-dirty calculations.
So the center of mass of the Weddell Sea hasn't shifted very much, much less the whole Earth. However the Earth's sidereal period is something we can measure with almost unbelievable precisio
then you look at Saturn's Red Spot ... and wonder (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The Giant Red Spot is on Jupiter.
Saturn also has large storms, but they are much smaller and not visible from Earth
Better Name (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Quickly? That much ice isn't going to do anything quickly.
But if its true it broke off of the Antarctic in the 1980's why hasn't global warming melted it completely over the last ~40 years? The ice cubes in my coffee don't last 10 minutes.
Re: (Score:2)
Where is this news from? (Score:2)
Slashdot posts an interesting story about a iceberg that, apparently, has quite a history. I'd be very interested in reading more of that history than the story we saw in November about it. I mean, I have a lot of doubts our current editors are capable of writing what's in the summary here without an original source, so how about we post that as a link? Huh?
Caught in a Taylor Column (Score:5, Informative)
The iceberg is caught in a Taylor Column [wikipedia.org] that is caused by the direction of current, and the contour of the features below the ocean surface.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought a Taylor Column would be a regular commentary spot in a Pop magazine for Swifties.
Re: (Score:3)
I thought a Taylor Column would be a regular commentary spot in a Pop magazine for Swifties.
I am old, so when I see "Taylor", in this kind of planetary context, I think Charlton Heston.
God damn you all to hell!
The BBC has the story... (Score:2)
The BBC carried this story on August 4th 2024: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/art... [bbc.co.uk]
How do you want your iceberg ? (Score:2)