Huge Antartican Iceberg Breaks Apart

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Huge Iceberg Breaks Apart in Antarctica LiveScience Staff

 

LiveScience.com

Capping a 5-year-long saga of destruction, an iceberg about the size

of the Hawaiian island of Maui has split into three pieces in the

frigid Antarctic, scientists said Friday.

 

The larger iceberg, named B-15A, calved into three smaller icebergs —

B-15M, B-15N and B-15P. Two of the larger icebergs (B-15M and B-15N)

are about the size of Grand Cayman and St. Croix, respectively.

 

 

The fresh splits mark the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth times

that a portion of B-15 has broken off, or calved, since the first

calving event on May 30, 2000.

 

 

B-15A has been careening around the Ross sea for months, slamming

into the coast and breaking off chunks of protruding ice features as

big as cities. Back in January in McMurdo Sound it blocked ocean

currents and caused other sea ice to build up, threatening wildlife.

 

 

The latest breakup was first seen in satellite imagery from the

Defense Meteorological Satellite Program by researchers at the

National Ice Center (NIC).

 

 

Iceberg names are derived from the Antarctic quadrant where they are

first sighted. When they are first spotted, the NIC documents an

iceberg's point of origin. The iceberg is assigned the letter of the

quadrant, along with the sequential number.

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