B-15
B-15 is an iceberg that broke off the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica in 2000 and broke into several pieces in 2002.
Emergence
In March 2000, iceberg B-15 broke off the Ross Ice Shelf and then drifted north out to sea. Its area was initially about 11,600 km² (about the size of Jamaica ). By ' calving ' B-15 , the Ross Ice Shelf returned to the size of 1911 when it was first measured by Robert Falcon Scott . The name B-15 was given by the US National Ice Center , which tracks the course of all icebergs longer than 10 nautical miles (18.5 km). B denotes icebergs in the second quadrant between 90 degrees and 180 degrees west longitude, which are then numbered in ascending order. B-15 is therefore the 15th large iceberg recorded in the second quadrant.
McMurdo Sound
Iceberg B-15 blocked McMurdo Sound , which is adjacent to the Ross Ice Shelf along the Transantarctic Mountains , so that the sound became more icy due to the changed currents. The Adelie penguin colony living there suffered a considerable decline in population because of the longer distances to the sea .
Collisions and splits
In November 2002, the B-15 broke into several pieces. The resulting fragment B-15 A was initially around 122 kilometers in length and around 27 kilometers in width and with an area of 3,100 km² even somewhat larger than the area of Luxembourg and thus the largest free-swimming natural object in the ocean . It collided with the Drygalski ice tongue , also shown in atlases and maps , from which a piece broke off as a result of this impact, which can be seen in the picture below the iceberg floating in the sea. After that, the B-15A was on a collision course with the Aviator Glacier . When the B-15A ran aground at Cape Adare on Viktorialand , it broke into several small pieces on October 27th and 28th, 2005, the largest of which are called the B-15M, B-15N and B-15P.
The course of the original fragment is followed, among other things, with a permanently installed GPS receiver. At the end of 2009, parts of the iceberg were still on the move.
On February 11, 2010, the B-15 K collided with the edge of the ice shelf near the German research station Neumayer Station III . This collision was recorded by the research station's sonar system.
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Astronauts on the ISS observed the iceberg in May 2018 when it was 150 nautical miles northwest of the South Georgian Islands . At this point, a crack had formed the length of the iceberg.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Current Antarctic Iceberg Positions. (No longer available online.) National Ice Center , December 20, 2009, archived from the original on December 18, 2009 ; Retrieved December 20, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Antarctica: gigantic ice surface is falling apart. DER SPIEGEL , March 19, 2002, accessed December 20, 2009 .
- ↑ Iceberg rams ice shelf in front of Neumayer Station III. Press release of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, February 22, 2010, accessed on February 22, 2010 .
- ↑ Audio stream (mp3) of the collision. (MP3; 721 kB) (No longer available online.) Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, February 11, 2010, archived from the original on May 21, 2011 ; Retrieved February 22, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Viewing May 2018 , report on earthobservatory.nasa.gov dated June 6, 2018, page in English, accessed on June 6, 2018
