Posted on 12/05/2020 3:07:10 PM PST by BenLurkin
Britain's Royal Air Force has obtained images of what is considered the largest iceberg as it veers toward the island territory of South Georgia.
Pictures of A68a were released Friday following a reconnaissance flight of the iceberg. At roughly 93 miles long and 30 miles wide, the floe is believed to be the world's largest.
The pictures taken by British military aircraft, offering some of the closest views of the iceberg thus far, show cracks and apparently smaller chunks of ice breaking off.
In a Facebook post, British officials note that because of the iceberg's massive size, it's nearly impossible to photograph it in full with the exception of satellite imagery.
The chunk of ice cleaved off the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica in 2017 at a reported size of roughly 2,300 square miles. Researchers have noted for some weeks now that A68a has been on a collision with the island of South Georgia.
The iceberg is roughly 130 miles off the island's coast and could run aground in shallow coastal waters.
The government there said Saturday that it's keeping a close eye on the iceberg's trajectory.
Last month, the British Antarctic Survey raised the alarm on the damage the iceberg could potentially cause to wildlife if it became grounded near the island.
"Ecosystems can and will bounce back of course, but there's a danger here that if this iceberg gets stuck, it could be there for 10 years. An iceberg has massive implications for where land-based predators might be able to forage," said Geraint Tarling, an ecologist with the organization in November.
The survey notes that a large numbers of seals, whales and penguins feed off the coast of the southern Atlantic island.
Since 2017, the European Space Agency says, A68a has floated thousands of miles across the Southern Hemisphere.
The iceberg is bigger than South Georgia itself (1500 square miles vs 2300 square miles ). If it collides with South Georgia it could wipe out one of the richest wildlife habitats on earth (Attenborough’s Planet Earth II and Frozen planet). Maybe the Royal Air Force will step in and break it down to smaller chunks before it makes landfall, if it’s really on collision course. And then maybe microwaves could shrink them further.
Melting icebergs have ZERO effect on water levels. Ice displaces its own weight in water, and when it is melted it still displaces its own weight, as water.
Nuke it how many times?
... you get a really long cable and a couple rednecks with winches on the front of their trucks then ya dare them.
Perfect for a bottled water startup.
You don’t pull it you push it. You don’t necessarily have to see in front of it either. That’s why God invented airplanes.
When looking for a cool verb to describe the movement of a huge iceberg this highly educated writer chose “veers”. He didn’t even try to find a thesaurus. If he had he would have used “careens”. Veering is turning or changing direction. Careening is more like bearing down on unless the iceberg was moving along and suddenly turned toward South Georgia Island. It is very likely that the iceberg will not get anywhere near there they just need it to veer a bit so they can write a scary story. Then it can veer back and they won’t mention it again having already started the cortisol and adrenaline. That is why they didn’t say “heading straight towards”.
I imagine that there are numerous papers written about global warming and the effects on these islands, and what to do about the “upcoming tragedy”.
But then folks complain when God sends a giant ice cube to cool them down.
You redefine the problem into one that can be solved. E.G. carve it into chunks that can be towed or sailed. Or just use sails to give it just enough of a nudge to miss the sea floor and sail it east. The great circle course goes through the most energetic prevailing winds on earth, along with fortuitous currents.
Yes, I'm aware the mass of the thing is probably like 8-12 gigatonnes.
“You don’t pull it you push it. You don’t necessarily have to see in front of it either. That’s why God invented airplanes.”
Pusher-prop plane?
Ben, screw all the critical detractors who trip all over themselves trying to become the biggest cloaca to crap all stories like this.
Thanks for posting, its interesting!
“Yes, I’m aware the mass of the thing is probably like 8-12 gigatonnes.”
Several hundred gigatonnes
Man, I wouldn’t want to be the guy that misjudged and sailed that motherlubber into Melbourne harbor....
You get a couple of boats to push and use aircraft or drones to see where it is going.
oops, 300 meters tall is 300 megatonnes per square km, and it's well over 3k square km. Guess I'm not as smart as I thought. OTOH it's pinwheeling as it moves along so that implies the forces on it are not equal.
Assuming the average wind speed where it's at is about 10m/s you'll need roughly 50000square meters of sail area per square kilometer to divert it at 1cm/second...probably a parasail. OTOH since it's long and pointy and is already a sail, all you really need is enough sail area to orient so above water force from the wind interacts with below water force from the circumpolar current to send it east.
So the Democrats will admit it to the Union as our newest state which will give them two new Senators, who can never be defeated by the Republicans.
Bkmk
Use a function of P=F/A to calculate the HP to stop the movement of the ice shelf.
Figure the speed required to overcome the ocean current and use a function of the above formula again for the HP required for the task.
Conclude that it is someone else's problem.
“You get a couple of boats to push and use aircraft or drones to see where it is going.”
It is twice the size of the state of Rhode Island!
“all you really need is enough sail area to orient so above water force from the wind interacts with below water force from the circumpolar current to send it east.”
90% is underwater!
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