City-sized iceberg heading towards Australia
Sydney |Thursday, 2009 3:35:06 PM IST
 

A giant iceberg 19 km long and eight km wide, or 150 square km in area, is drifting slowly north from the Antarctica towards Western Australia.

The iceberg, known as B17B, was spotted by Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) glaciologist Neal Young using satellite images taken by NASA and the European Space Agency.

B17B which had calved from the eastern end of the Ross Ice Shelf nearly 10 years ago, is about 1,700 km south-south-west of the West Australian coast and moving north with the ocean current and prevailing wind, said Young.

"B17B is a very significant one in that it has drifted so far north while still largely intact. It's one of the biggest sighted at those latitudes," added Young.

"As the water warms up, the iceberg is slowly breaking up, resulting in hundreds more smaller icebergs in the area," he said.

st/sam/dg

( 153 Words)

2009-12-10-14:07:56 (IANS)

 

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