Iceberg C-19
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Iceberg C-19 calved from the Ross Ice Shelf on May 2002 on a fissure scientists have been watching since the 1980s. After that the Ross Ice Shelf returned to the size it was in 1911, when it was mapped by Robert F. Scott’s party. It was the second-largest iceberg to calve in the region in few years (after B-15).Its surface was larger than 5500 km²
During 2002 C-19 prevented sea ice from moving out of the southwestern Ross Sea region and this blockage resulted in an unusually high sea level ice during spring and summer, thus provoking a huge reduction in phytoplankton production which is at the base of the food chain.
In summer 2003 C-19 moved northward very rapidly, passed Cape Adana, and broke in two pieces: C-19A (surface approx. 4000 km²) and C-19B.
In September 2005, after a two year stay along the coast of Victoria Land (west of French station Dumont d'Urville) C-19A started drifting northward. In March 2006 its location is in the Pacific Ocean, 200 km west of Balleny Islands.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Huge Antarctic Iceberg Makes a BIG Splash on Sea Life, press release, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, 1 October 2003
