Iceberg Eight Times The Size Of Manhattan Adrift

An iceberg eight times the size of Manhattan has broken off a glacier in the Antarctica and could threaten busy international shipping lanes.

Scientists in Britain have been awarded a £50,000 grant to track the giant ice island, which came away from the Pine Island Glacier in July.

The team, led by Professor Grant Bigg from the University of Sheffield, is monitoring the iceberg's movement and rate of melting.

Professor Bigg said: "Its current movement does not raise environmental issues, However, a previous giant iceberg from this location eventually entered the South Atlantic and if this happens it could potentially pose a hazard to ships.

"If the iceberg stays around the Antarctic coast, it will melt slowly and will eventually add a lot of freshwater that stays in the coastal current, altering the density and affecting the speed of the current.

Manhattan covers an area of around 34 sq miles

"Similarly, if it moves north it will melt faster but could alter the overturning rates of the current as it may create a cap of freshwater above the denser seawater."

He added: "if these events become more common, there will be a build-up of freshwater which could have lasting effects."

The six-month project, funded by the National Environmental Research Council (NERC), is being co-managed by Dr Robert Marsh, from the University of Southampton.

He said: "The primary reason to monitor the iceberg is that it's very large. An iceberg that size could survive for a year or longer and it could drift a long way north in that time and end up in the vicinity of world shipping lanes in the Southern Ocean.

"There's a lot of activity to and from the Antarctic Peninsula, and ships could potentially cross paths with this large iceberg, although it would be an unusual coincidence."

The team's work is not only expected to provide a timely warning of any consequences of the iceberg's release to the shipping industry, but will include testing a technique which could in future be used by ice hazard warning services.

The iceberg was first spotted by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research via the German Space Agency's earth observation satellite TerraSAR-X.

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