ESA: Radar images: B-9B iceberg ramming into the Mertz Glacier Tongue
credit: ESA
5 March 2010
This animation, made up of eight Envisat radar images, shows the 97-km long B-9B iceberg (right) ramming into the Mertz Glacier Tongue in Eastern Antarctica in early February. The collision caused a chunk of the glacier’s tongue to snap off, giving birth to another iceberg nearly as large as B-9B.
The new iceberg, named C-28, is roughly 78-km long and 39-km wide, with a surface area of 2500 sq km (the size of Luxembourg).
Since the collision, the two icebergs have drifted together into a polynya, which is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. Polynyas produce dense, cold, and salty water – known as ‘bottom water’ – that sinks to the sea bottom and drives ocean circulation.
There is concern that if the icebergs stay in the polynyas area, they could block the formation of the bottom water. This would mean less oxygen going into the deep currents that feed the oceans and would have implications for marine life in the region.
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMUD27K56G_index_0.html
Tags: Antarctic, B-9B iceberg, carbon, climate, Climate change, climate talks, Climatechange, ClimateGate, co2, combating climate change, COP16, environment, environmental, esa, giant iceberg, glacier tongue, global temperatur, Global Warming, ice on antarctica, iceberg, IPCC, melting glacier, melting ice, mertz glacier, NASA, polynya, UNFCCC
