Sydney: A massive iceberg struck Antarctica, dislodging another giant block of ice from a glacier, Australian and French scientists have said.
The two icebergs are drifting together about 100 to 150 kms off eastern Antarctica following the collision on February 12 or 13, said Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young yesterday.
"It gave it a pretty big nudge," Young said of the 97-km long iceberg, about the size of Luxembourg, that collided with the giant floating Mertz Glacier and shaved off a new iceberg. "They are now floating right next to each other."
The new iceberg is 78 kms long and about 39 kms wide and holds roughly the equivalent of a fifth of the world`s annual total water usage, Young told a news agency.
The iceberg that hit the Mertz Glacier is called B9B and had broken free from another part of Antarctica in 1987. It has been nuzzling and shifting alongside the Mertz for about 18 years before this month`s dislodging, said Benoit Legresy, a researcher with the LEGOS laboratory for geophysical studies in Toulouse, France.
"It was a slow process," Legresy said. He said B9B was "sitting there, it must have been pushed and pulled by the current every day and used as a hammer to bang on the other one by the ocean currents."
The dislodging occurred because of the iceberg`s latest location and water that had warmed during Antarctica`s summer, leaving less sea ice, Legresy said.
PTI
