March 5th, 2010
Iceberg the size of Dorset threatens UK weather patterns
A 60 mile long iceberg, known as B9B, has smashed into the Mertz Glacier tongue in Antarctica. The Mertz Glacier is a 100-mile long tongue of ice which the B9B iceberg broke away from in 1987.
Over a period of nearly 8 weeks, the B9B iceberg approached the glacier and with tide and current slowly hammered into the tongue of ice.
On the 26th February, the Mertz Glacier tongue broke off creating a new iceberg measuring 50 miles by 25 miles. This iceberg could now disrupt weather patterns for years to come.
Both icebergs are now floating 90 miles off the northern coast in the Antarctic Continental Shelf and combined, they are weighing in at over 1000 billion tons. The Mertz Tongue Iceberg contains a year’s supply of fresh water for 1/5 of the world’s population and could potentially block the ‘bottom water’ which powers the oceans circulation system. ‘Bottom water’ is the lowest layer of ocean, cold-salt water and Antarctica produces bottom water for the South Pacific, Southern Indian Ocean, South Atlantic and portions of the North Atlantic.
Changes in these waters and currents could influence weather patterns around the world and would make Britain colder as we would not have the mild sea temperatures brought in by the Atlantic drift.
With such a mass floating in the ocean it could also reduce the amount of oxygen in the oceans jeopardising marine wildlife. Emperor penguins, bird life and seals could be under threat.
Experts say that ‘iceberg calving’- which occurs when these icebergs break off, does happen from time to time and that this occurrance is by no means a record large iceberg.
The icebergs are expected to head west along the Antarctic coastline.