![]() “Spoiler alert: they tend to pond with water, which then works its way through the iceberg like a set of knives,” says NASA glaciologist Kelly Brunt. Instead, it started on a northward trajectory toward warmer climes.īergs that make it as far north as South Georgia are known to melt off quite rapidly, even if they are the world’s largest reports NASA. ![]() These prevented it from drifting through the Drake Passage-a channel that runs between the southern tip of South America and Antarctica. But as Specktor reports, after traveling roughly three-quarters of the way around the continent, the iceberg encountered additional currents near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. If B-15 had stayed in the South Atlantic, rapid melting wasn't inevitable icebergs can hold on for decades within Antarctica’s coastal currents. The other fragments will likely soon meet the same fate as they continue northward toward the equator. If the berg gets too small, the NIC can no longer track it. According to a press release, a large fracture runs down its center, and smaller pieces are breaking from the edges. Though the ice chunk is currently 11.5 miles long and just under six miles wide, it's showing signs of breaking down. Last month, astronauts on the International Space Station captured an image of B-15Z, one of the largest remaining fragments. But now, only four remaining pieces meet the minimum size requirement (20 square nautical miles) to be tracked by the National Ice Center. By 2015, the original iceberg had broken into eight major fragments. When it first broke away from Antarctica, B-15 stretched 170 miles long and 25 miles wide, with a surface area of 4,250 square miles. Now, reports Brandon Specktor at LiveScience, B-15 has drifted close to South Georgia Island and a new image suggest its wild ride is almost over. Over the last 18 years, researchers have tracked iceberg B-15 as it drifted around the continent and eventually northward. In late March, 2000, an iceberg larger than Jamaica, the largest ever recorded, broke off Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf.
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