Iceberg pops up near island

[oc disorder]

something completly different !.... Well one did sink the Titanic !

Iceberg pops up near island Tasmania News - The Mercury - The Voice of Tasmania

DAVID KILLICK
November 07, 2009 02:00am

A HUGE iceberg has been spotted off Macquarie Island, halfway between Antarctica and Australia.

The iceberg, estimated to be 500m long and 50m high, was spotted about eight kilometres north-west of the island by Australian Antarctic Division expeditioners this week.
Fur seal biologist Dean Miller was the first to see the iceberg while on his way to visit a seal colony at the island's North Head.

"I've never seen anything like it -- we looked out to the horizon and just saw this huge floating island of ice," Dr Miller said on the AAD website.

"It was a monumental moment for me as it was the first iceberg I have seen."

Glaciologist Neal Young said icebergs were a rare sight at Macquarie Island.

"This is the first I can recall being sighted from Macquarie Island for many, many years," Dr Young said.

He said it was likely to be part of a massive berg that broke off the Ross Ice Shelf eight or nine years ago.

"It's come up from the area generally south of us. I would expect it's part of one of the large ones which came off the ice shelf because of its shape and size," he said.

"It's very much a tabular iceberg with vertical sides -- it's not long out of the Antarctic.

"It could well go up quite close to New Zealand or it might circle round in an eddy or gyre."

The berg was not yet a danger to shipping, although it could pose a hazard as it broke up over the next six months to two years.

"When it starts to break up, which it will do eventually, it will break into many pieces and those are the real danger," Dr Young said.

And it was possible such bergs could become more frequently sighted in coming years.

"It would become more common if climate change continues the way it's been going," he said. "We could anticipate the ice shelves to break up over a long period of time."

A Tasmanian state reserve, Macquarie Island lies 1500km south-south-east of Hobart.

[Enzo]

Well, looks like they've got to go with the floe.

[Jazz P Bass]

SnoCones!!

[Old Tele man]

Originally Posted by Jazz P Bass

SnoCones!!

...SnoCones, hell! Frozen Daquari's and Margarita's!

[Tom Phillips]

Re: "Glaciologist Neal Young said icebergs were a rare sight at Macquarie Island."

I didn't know about that. Is Glaciologist a hobby or a day job for Neal?