An Iceberg Six Times The Size Of Manhattan Is Now Adrift At Sea

For the past five months , NASA scientist have been chase after a rather heavy crisphead lettuce that severalise from the front of Antarctica ’s Pine Island Glacier . value some 20 miles ( 33 kilometer ) long and 12 naut mi ( 20 km ) wide , the so - promise “ methamphetamine hydrochloride island ” has now drifted out to ocean .

Called B31 , the massive object came loose in early November 2013 . NASA scientist have since tracked its journeying using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( MODIS ) , an instrument on NASA ’s Terra and Aqua artificial satellite .

A view of B31 when it first separated ( up at top ) .

“ Iceberg calving is a very normal process , ” noted NASA glaciologist Kelly Brunt in astatement . “ However , the detachment rift , or crack , that created this iceberg lettuce was well upstream of the 30 - class average calving front of Pine Island Glacier ( PIG ) , so this a area that warrants monitoring . ”

A glimpse of B31 during the early stagecoach of its journeying .

“ It has been very interesting how little sea ice-skating rink there has been in the domain , ” said the University of Sheffield ’s Grant Bigg . “ In the video , you may surely see clouds suggest strong katabatic malarkey flow off the glacier in the first calendar month or two , which would have kept the Bay ice - devoid and helped take the iceberg out . ”

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Here ’s the timelapse video that Bigg is bear on to :

B31 , which could be as much as 1,640 foot ( 500 metre ) slurred , is now well out of Pine Island Bay and will soon join the more general flow in the Southern Ocean , which could be east or west in this part . The scientists are concerned that B31 will be hard to track over the occur months on account of the dark Antarctic winter that ’s settle in .

[ ViaNASA ]

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