Interesting facts about icebergs. Research work on the topic: “Amazing phenomena of nature. Iceberg In the southern latitudes, icebergs are often found.
Iceberg - what is it? How are icebergs formed and what are they.
Iceberg (German Eisberg, "ice mountain") is a large free-floating piece of ice in the ocean or sea. As a rule, icebergs break off ice shelves. Since the density of ice is 920 kg/m³ and the density of sea water is about 1025 kg/m³, about 90% of the iceberg's volume is under water. Long-term snowfalls, compaction of the snow cover causes the “growth” of the iceberg, turning it into a collection of billions of tiny ice mirrors that reflect light.
Where do icebergs form
In the northern hemisphere, their birthplace is Greenland, constantly accumulating layers of ice and, from time to time, sending excess to the Atlantic Ocean. Under the influence of currents and winds, ice blocks are sent to the south side, crossing the sea routes that connect North and South America with Europe. The length of their journey varies from season to season. In spring, they do not even reach 50º C. sh., and in autumn they can reach 40º s. sh. At this latitude, transoceanic sea routes pass.
An iceberg is a block of ice that can form off the coast of Antarctica. From this place begins their journey to the fortieth latitudes of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. These areas are not so in demand among sea carriers, because their main routes go through the Panama and Suez canals. However, the dimensions of icebergs and their number here far exceed those of the northern hemisphere.
table icebergs
Having learned what an iceberg is, you can consider their varieties. Table-shaped ice floes are the result of the process of breaking off large areas of ice shelves. Their structure can be very different: from firn to glacial ice. The color characteristic of the iceberg is not constant. Freshly chipped has a white matte hue due to the large proportion of air in the outer layer of compressed snow. Over time, the gas is displaced by water droplets, causing the iceberg to turn a light blue color.
A table iceberg is a very massive block of ice. One of the largest representatives of this type measured 385 × 111 km. Another record holder had an area of about 7 thousand km2. The main number of tabular icebergs is orders of magnitude less than indicated. Their length is about 580 m, the height from the water surface is 28 m. Rivers and lakes with melt water can form on the surface of some.
pyramidal icebergs
The pyramidal iceberg is the result of ice landslides. They are distinguished by a peak with a sharp end and a significant height above the water surface. The length of ice blocks of this type is about 130 m, and the height of the above-water part is 54 m. Their color differs from table-like ones by a soft greenish-bluish tint, however, darker icebergs have also been recorded. In the thickness of the ice there are significant inclusions of rocks, sand or silt that got into it while moving around the island or mainland.
Threat to ships
The most dangerous are icebergs located in the North Atlantic Ocean. Up to 18 thousand new ice giants are recorded in the ocean every year. You can only see them from a distance of no more than half a kilometer. This is not enough time to turn away or stop the ship to avoid a collision. The peculiarity of these waters is that thick fog often arises here, which does not dissipate for a long time.
Sailors are familiar with the terrible meaning of the word "iceberg". The most dangerous are the old ice floes, which have melted significantly and almost do not protrude above the ocean surface. In 1913, the International Ice Patrol was organized. Its employees are in touch with ships and aircraft, collecting information about icebergs and warning of danger. Predicting the movement of the ice giant is almost impossible. To make them more noticeable, icebergs are marked with bright paint or with an automatic radio beacon.
The shape of an iceberg depends on its origin:
Icebergs of outlet glaciers have a table-like shape with a slightly convex upper surface, which is dissected by various types of irregularities and cracks. characteristic of the Southern Ocean.
Icebergs of sheet glaciers are distinguished by the fact that their upper surface is almost never even. It is somewhat inclined, like a shed roof. Their sizes, in comparison with other types of icebergs of the Southern Ocean, are the smallest.
Icebergs of ice shelves have, as a rule, significant horizontal dimensions (tens and even hundreds of kilometers). Their average height is 35-50 m. They have a flat horizontal surface, almost strictly vertical and even side walls.
In 2000, the largest iceberg known to date, B-15, with an area of over 11,000 km², broke away from the Ross Ice Shelf as a result of mechanical ablation. In the spring of 2005, its fragment - iceberg B-15A - had a length of more than 115 kilometers and an area of \u200b\u200bmore than 2500 km² and was still the largest observed iceberg.
A breakaway iceberg from the Ross Ice Shelf, named B7B, measuring 19 kilometers by 8 kilometers (the ice area is larger than that of Hong Kong) was spotted in early 2010 by NASA and ESA satellite imagery at a distance of approximately 1,700 kilometers south of Australia. The original size of this iceberg was about 400 square kilometers. It took iceberg B7B about 10 years to sail this far north. The coordinates of iceberg B7B at the beginning of 2010 are 48°48′ S. sh. 107°30′ E d.HGЯO.
Icebergs, especially table-shaped ones, are characteristic of the southern polar region. In the northern subpolar regions, icebergs are more rare, among them icebergs of relatively small sizes of outlet and sheet glaciers predominate. Since the formation of an iceberg of any kind, the process of its destruction has been continuously going on, especially actively in the seaward part of the ocean. Numerous forms of icebergs - pyramidal, inclined, rounded, with arches, rams - arise when they are destroyed. Inclined icebergs are a characteristic initial form of failure, especially of shelf table icebergs. Wave-cut underwater terrace, trying to emerge, raises one edge of the iceberg. Inclined icebergs are very high. The duration of the existence of icebergs in Antarctic waters is on average about 2 years (with the volume of iceberg runoff into the ocean 2.2 thousand km3/year and their total volume in the ocean 4.7 thousand km3).
The color of the iceberg directly depends on the age of the iceberg: only the breakaway ice mass contains a large amount of air in the upper layers, therefore it has a dull white color. Due to the replacement of air with water droplets, the iceberg changes its color to white with a blue tint. Also, do not be surprised at the pale pink iceberg.
An iceberg is a huge mass of ice that slides from a continent or island into the waters of the ocean or breaks off the coast. This word is translated as Their existence was first reliably explained by M. Lomonosov. Due to the fact that about 10% less the main part of the iceberg (up to 90%) is hidden below the water surface.
Where do icebergs form
In the northern hemisphere, their birthplace is Greenland, constantly accumulating layers of ice and, from time to time, sending excess to the Atlantic Ocean. Under the influence of currents and winds, ice blocks are sent to the south side, crossing the sea routes that connect North and South America with Europe. The length of their journey varies from season to season. In spring, they do not even reach 50º C. sh., and in autumn they can reach 40º s. sh. At this latitude, transoceanic sea routes pass.
An iceberg is a block of ice that can form off the coast of Antarctica. From this place begins their journey to the fortieth latitudes of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. These areas are not so in demand among sea carriers, because their main routes go through Panama and However, the dimensions of icebergs and their number here far exceed those of the northern hemisphere.
table icebergs
Having learned what an iceberg is, you can consider their varieties. Table-shaped ice floes are the result of the process of breaking off large areas of ice shelves. Their structure can be very different: from firn to glacial ice. The color characteristic of the iceberg is not constant. Freshly chipped has a white matte hue due to the large proportion of air in the outer layer of compressed snow. Over time, the gas is displaced by water droplets, causing the iceberg to turn a light blue color.
A table iceberg is a very massive block of ice. One of the largest representatives of this type measured 385 × 111 km. Another record holder had an area of about 7 thousand km2. The main number of tabular icebergs is orders of magnitude less than indicated. Their length is about 580 m, the height from the water surface is 28 m. Rivers and lakes with melt water can form on the surface of some.
pyramidal icebergs
The pyramidal iceberg is the result of ice landslides. They are distinguished by a peak with a sharp end and a significant height above the water surface. The length of ice blocks of this type is about 130 m, and the height of the above-water part is 54 m. Their color differs from table-like ones by a soft greenish-bluish tint, however, darker icebergs have also been recorded. In the thickness of the ice there are significant inclusions of rocks, sand or silt that got into it while moving around the island or mainland.
Threat to ships
The most dangerous are icebergs located in the North Atlantic Ocean. Up to 18 thousand new ice giants are recorded in the ocean every year. You can only see them from a distance of no more than half a kilometer. This is not enough time to turn away or stop the ship to avoid a collision. The peculiarity of these waters is that thick fog often arises here, which does not dissipate for a long time.
Sailors are familiar with the terrible meaning of the word "iceberg". The most dangerous are the old ice floes, which have melted significantly and almost do not protrude above the ocean surface. In 1913, the International Ice Patrol was organized. Its employees are in touch with ships and aircraft, collecting information about icebergs and warning of danger. Predicting movement is almost impossible. To make them more noticeable, icebergs are marked with bright paint or with an automatic radio beacon.
- Introduction
Definition of icebergs
Main geographic location
Examples from history
Iceberg Advantage
Literature
icebergs
In the sea there are huge ice mountains - fragments of ice of polar glaciers. They are called icebergs
; in translation from the German "Eisberg" it means "ice mountain" ("ice" - ice and "berg" - mountain, "ice mountain").
Icebergs are huge massifs of ice that slide into the ocean from the mainland or island in the form of glacial tongues or break off from the ice shores surrounding Greenland and Antarctica in a powerful ring. The northern homeland of icebergs is Greenland, which continuously accumulates ice on its surface, and then dumps the excess into the waters of the Atlantic. From here they, driven by winds and currents, begin their journey to the south, across the sea routes connecting the two continents. The depth of the raids depends on the time of year: in March they descend no lower than 50 ° north latitude, and in October they can reach 40 ° north latitude, where many transoceanic routes lie (see Fig.).
Icebergs are formed where there are glaciers descending from the mountains into the sea. Such glaciers occur in the mountainous areas of the polar countries and are large, tens or hundreds of meters thick, masses of pure ice. The ice mass of the glacier only seems to be
movable. In fact, the ice is constantly sliding down the side of the mountain. Having reached the shore, the glacier enters the sea. At first, not far from the coast, the ice continues to creep along the bottom, but then, as it moves away from the coast, it floats on the surface of the sea. Wave impacts gradually destroy the edge of the glacier. Longitudinal cracks appear, which, increasing, break off part of the ice. In a terrible roar, like the shots of hundreds of artillery pieces, an iceberg is born. A huge mass of ice breaks off the edge of the glacier and collapses into the sea. One by one, the icebergs float further out to sea, driven by the current and the wind. Among them there are giants with a height of almost 200 meters and an area of more than a square kilometer!
If the ice mountain gets aground, it will stay here for a long time, forming a kind of ice island.
The second, southern homeland of icebergs sends them on a voyage to the fortieth latitudes of all three oceans:
- quiet,
Indian
and Atlantic.
Table-shaped icebergs are characterized by flat, relatively even tops and huge sizes and are formed as a result of breaking off ice shelves. They consist of ice of various stages of formation - from compressed snow - firn, to solid glacier ice. The density of the main iceberg massif is from 0.5 to 0.8 g/cu. cm, which provides it with good buoyancy with a significant deepening of the underwater part. The color of the icebergs is constantly changing: the freshly broken ice mass has a dull white color due to the high air content in the upper layers of the young firn ice. Gradually, air bubbles are replaced by drops of water, and the color acquires a delicate bluish tint.
Table-shaped icebergs can reach colossal sizes. In 1956, the Glacier icebreaker near Scott Island encountered an iceberg 385 kilometers long and 111 kilometers wide, which had been drifting in the ocean for many years - in 1959 it was discovered by the whaling ship Slava. Ice giants are not uncommon - in December 1965, ice reconnaissance discovered an ice island with an area of \u200b\u200babout 7,000 square kilometers. In general, table-shaped icebergs are much smaller than the champions: the average length is 580 meters, the average height of the above-water part is 28 meters, under water there are more than one hundred meters of ice block (see Fig.).
Pyramidal icebergs are formed as a result of long tongue glaciers sliding into the ocean, they have a pointed top and a high surface part. Their dimensions are relatively small: the average length is about 130 meters, height - 54 meters. In 1904, the ship "Zenith" in the Falkland Islands met an iceberg 450 meters high, there were also higher pyramidal blocks. They usually have a soft greenish or bluish hue, but darker icebergs are also found. The ice block contains a large amount of rock fragments, silt and sand absorbed by the glacier as it moves over land.
Icebergs in the northern and southern hemispheres pose a serious threat to navigation. Especially dangerous are the icy mountains of the North Atlantic, which, even on clear nights, are distinguishable from a distance of no more than 500 - 600 meters. At such a distance, the ship can no longer avoid a collision, even after working "full back". In this area, the cold Labrador Current meets the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, which creates thick and prolonged fogs, in which the iceberg can be detected from the bridge of the ship in a matter of minutes before the collision. Dozens of ships became victims of ice wanderers, thousands of people died. The world was shocked by the death of the Titanic in April 1912, which, avoiding a direct collision with an iceberg, only slid its starboard side along its underwater part - two hours later only a few crowded boats remained on the surface of the ocean.
In 1913, thirteen major maritime powers signed an agreement to establish the International Ice Patrol, with its headquarters in Newfoundland. It maintains contact with ships and aircraft in the patrol area, analyzes observational data and provides timely notification of all ships about discovered icebergs. Watching the movement of icebergs is a rather difficult task, since it is very difficult to predict in which direction and at what speed the ice hulk will move. To facilitate observation, the iceberg is marked with bright paint or an automatic radio beacon is dropped onto its surface. Observational data obtained from space satellites give good results.
The measures taken gave tangible results - the catastrophes practically stopped, but on January 30
In 1959, the Danish cargo-and-passenger ship Hans Hedhovt, with a displacement of 3,000 tons, collided with an iceberg and died with all passengers and crew. True, the collision took place outside the patrol area. It is impossible to guarantee the complete safety of ships in areas where icebergs occur, therefore, navigators on watch on the navigation bridge should be especially careful.
Swimming close to an iceberg is also dangerous - at a melted iceberg, the center of gravity shifts upwards, it is in a state of unstable equilibrium and can roll over at any moment. The tipping of the iceberg was observed from the ship Ob in the Davis Sea, and eyewitnesses described this event as follows: “In calm weather, there was a strong roar, comparable in strength to an artillery salvo. Those on the deck saw, at a distance of no more than one kilometer from the ship, a slowly overturning pyramidal iceberg about forty meters high. Huge blocks of ice broke off from its surface and fell into the water with a roar. When the surface of the iceberg sank into the water with a noise, a rather large swell began to diverge from it, causing the ship to roll. On the surface of the sea, among the debris, a new hilly and uneven tip of the iceberg slowly swayed.
The edge of the iceberg may collapse, which also threatens the ship with serious consequences. Especially dangerous is the position of the vessel, sandwiched in the ice. The iceberg, moving under the influence of the undercurrent, crushes the ice fields and, approaching the ship, can crush it.
Of the various projects for the destruction of icebergs, not one has been carried out: bombing is perceived by the ice giant as needle pricks, and a fantastic amount of energy is required to melt millions of tons of ice.
In recent years, many parts of Africa and Australia have experienced an acute shortage of fresh water. Therefore, a project arose to tow individual icebergs to the shores of South Africa and Australia and use the water generated during their melting for industrial and other purposes. It has been calculated that one medium-sized iceberg can produce an amount of clean fresh water that can be compared to the flow of a large river.
In the southern latitudes of the oceans, in the areas of the "roaring forties", the ship even has nowhere to hide from the storm wind and waves - you will not find a single island for hundreds of miles around. Huge icebergs can become a reliable protection - from the leeward side, you can wait out the storm and carry out reloading operations from ship to ship. A flat area of table-shaped icebergs can be used as a runway for light aircraft.
But in carrying out these operations, one should constantly remember the insidious nature of icebergs, which at any moment can turn into a dangerous enemy.
The famous "Calypso" Jacques-Yves Cousteau was heading to Antarctica for oceanographic and meteorological observations. Hundreds of ice blocks surrounded a small ship, and then the troubles began: at first one screw failed, then the axis of the second screw broke - the ship lost control. Wind and waves drove the Calypso to the foot of a giant iceberg, which lurched suspiciously. Fragments of ice rained down on the deck of the ship in a hail, and another wave of Calypso hit the side of the iceberg - a one and a half meter hole was formed, but, fortunately, it was above the waterline. Only the improvement of the weather saved the ship from destruction, it hardly reached the nearest island, from where it was towed to the South American harbor.
Iceberg - a large, free-floating piece of ice in the ocean or sea. As a rule, icebergs break off ice shelves. The nature of icebergs was first correctly explained by the Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov. Since the density of ice is 920 kg/m?, and the density of sea water is about 1025 kg/m?, about 90% of the iceberg's volume is under water.
In 2000, the largest iceberg known to date, B-15, with an area of over 10,000 km², broke away from the Ross Ice Shelf as a result of mechanical ablation. In the spring of 2005, its fragment - iceberg B-15A - had a length of more than 115 kilometers and an area of more than 2500 km? and was still the largest observed iceberg.
A breakaway iceberg from the Ross Ice Shelf, named B7B, measuring 19 kilometers by 8 kilometers (the ice area is larger than that of Hong Kong) was spotted in early 2010 by NASA and ESA satellite imagery at a distance of approximately 1,700 kilometers south of Australia. The original size of this iceberg was about 400 square kilometers. Icebergs of this size, so far from their source of origin, have not been recorded in the last hundred years of observations. It took about 10 years for iceberg B7B to sail this far north. The coordinates of iceberg B7B at the beginning of 2010 are 48.8 ° S. sh. 107.5° E d. (G) (O).
If the iceberg is blue, it is most likely over 1000 years old. Dark blue color have the so-called. "black" icebergs that have recently turned over in the water.
The construction of inhabited research bases is practiced on icebergs. Even now, towing icebergs to arid regions is sometimes practiced.
Our Earth is called the blue planet. And not by accident. After all, 70% of the earth's surface is water. Water exists not only in a liquid state, but also in a solid state (at negative temperatures). Solid water is ice, glaciers that make up the ice shell of the Earth. Glaciers are perennial masses of ice formed by the accumulation and transformation of snow that move under the influence of gravity and take the form of streams, bulging shields or floating plates (ice shelves). Polar glaciers almost always go to the oceans and seas and actively interact with them, which is why they are called "marine". Glaciers can invade cold, shallow seas by advancing onto the continental shelf. Ice sinks into the water, which leads to the formation of ice shelves - floating plates consisting of firn (compressed porous snow) and ice. Icebergs break off from them periodically. At contact with the sea, the movement of ice flows accelerates, their ends emerge, forming floating tongues, which also become the source of a huge number of icebergs. We will talk about icebergs in our work.
The end of the glacier hangs over the sea for some time. It is undermined by tides, sea currents, winds. Finally, it breaks off and falls into the water with a crash. Every year, ice flows form tens of cubic kilometers of ice per year. All the glaciers of Greenland annually throw into the ocean more than 300 km 3 of ice, ice flows and ice shelves of Antarctica - at least 2 thousand km 3.
Greenland icebergs are often real ice mountains with a domed or pyramidal shape. They can rise above the water by 70-100 m, which is no more than 20-30% of their volume, the remaining 70-80% are hidden under water. With the East Greenland and Labrador currents, masses of icebergs are carried up to 40-50 0 north latitude, in some cases even further south.
In Antarctic waters, icebergs did a good job of the Yuri Dolgoruky whaling flotilla. Severe storms prevented sailors from reloading finished products on a refrigerator and taking fuel from a tanker. And then the sailors saw two icebergs nearby. There were high waves around, and between them there was only a slight swell. The sailors ventured to stand between the icebergs and, under their protection, make the necessary overload. It seems to be the only time icebergs helped sailors. But icebergs are not only a majestic natural phenomenon. They can serve as a source of fresh water, which is increasingly lacking for people. Projects are already being developed to "capture" and tow icebergs to dry areas, such as Saudi Arabia, South West Africa.
Every creation of nature is unique and unrepeatable. Ice mountains in the ocean - an unforgettably beautiful and majestic picture. They have the most bizarre shapes and amazingly colored. They resemble giant crystals of precious stones: bright green, dark blue, turquoise. This is how the sun's rays are refracted in polar ice floes, ideally clean and saturated with air bubbles. Because of these bubbles, which are much lighter than water, icebergs are only five-sixths of their volume submerged in water.
The true size of icebergs is far beyond imagination. In the Arctic, these mountains of ice rise above sea level by an average of 70 m, sometimes reaching a height of 190 m, and some of them reach several kilometers in length. The drifting station "North Pole-6" and the first American Arctic stations in the Arctic Ocean operated on such ice islands. The flat-topped masses of Antarctic icebergs have an average surface height of 100 m, and some of them rise 500 m above the water and have a length of 100 km or more.
Sea currents and winds pick up icebergs and carry them out of the polar seas to the ocean expanse. In the Southern Hemisphere, large Antarctic icebergs penetrate especially far into the Atlantic Ocean, here they reach up to 26 0south latitude, i.e. to the latitude of Rio de Janeiro, in the Pacific and Indian oceans, icebergs do not swim north of 50-40 0 south latitude.
In the Northern Hemisphere, a particularly large number of Arctic icebergs are carried by the East Greenland and Labrador currents into the Atlantic Ocean, where they reach the latitude of England. And here, on the busy transatlantic shipping routes, they pose a serious threat to ships. But modern ships are equipped with sophisticated instruments that warn at a great distance of the approach of any obstacle, including icebergs.
With the help of icebergs, as we have already said, it would be possible to solve the problems of supplying the arid regions of the Earth with fresh water. The well-known American oceanologist and engineer John Isaacs came up with a tempting idea - to tow a large iceberg to the shores of California, suffering from a lack of water, and use the water formed when the iceberg melts to irrigate drylands. It can be assumed that the colossal mass of ice, which will melt very slowly even in the hot Californian climate, can cause increased condensation of atmospheric moisture and additional precipitation. This will lead to an increase in water reserves in the reservoir and a certain decrease in the dryness of the climate in the coastal area adjacent to the iceberg. This can be used in other arid regions of the world, and above all in Australia.
Like any natural phenomenon, icebergs require careful study by scientists so that they can benefit humans without disturbing the balance in nature.
References
- E. Bauer. Wonders of the Earth. M., "Children's Literature", 1978
Encyclopedia for children. Geography. M., "Avanta +", 1994
Popular marine encyclopedia - Yu.G.Glotov and V.A.Semchenko
etc.................
Research has been published in the journal Geophysical Research on the causes that influence the movement of icebergs. Scientists have now been able to simulate the drift of Antarctic icebergs across the Southern Ocean, as well as determine the factors underlying their movement and melting.
Scientists from all over the world are closely watching the Larsen Ice Shelf off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. A massive iceberg began to break off from the glacier. The future block of ice is approximately 175 km long and 50 km wide. Its total area can be 6 thousand square meters. km, and the weight is 1300 gigatons, which is comparable to the weight of all the icebergs that form in this region in a year. It is almost impossible to predict when this iceberg will break away from the glacier. Nevertheless, specialists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (Germany) have achieved significant success in this matter. They have learned about the factors that affect the movement of icebergs when they break off and can predict their path through the Southern Ocean.
“Icebergs, no larger than two kilometers in length or width, usually move away from the edge of the ice shelf within a few months. The wind blows them out to sea, where they break up into small pieces and eventually melt in two to three years,” explains Thomas Rackow, climate modeler at the Alfred Wegener Institute and one of the authors of the study.For their study, Thomas Rakov and his colleagues created a computer model of an iceberg, using its data and the actual position. The potential routes obtained using the computer were compared with data from existing large icebergs. The main goal of the experiment is to understand in which region of the Southern Ocean large icebergs will melt, thereby increasing the amount of fresh water.
When it comes to giant icebergs breaking away from the Larsen Glacier, the wind no longer plays a special role. Their movement is mainly due to their own weight, as well as the fact that the surface of the Southern Ocean is not perfectly flat, but has a slight slope to the north. Because of this, the water level at the southern edge of the Weddell Sea and along the entire Antarctic Peninsula can be half a meter higher than in the center. When large icebergs drift, they first slide down the sloping surface of the ocean, swerve to the left and run parallel to the coast in the Antarctic Coast Current. This is due to the Coriolis force, which is one of the forces of inertia due to the rotation of the Earth.
But there are exceptions. Large table-shaped (flat) icebergs can deviate from the course of the Coriolis force and linger near the coast for the first three or four years. But sooner or later they get trapped with drifting ice and swim away from the shore. Once the icebergs are in the open sea, they fall into one of the four "highways" that transport the floating glacier to the north. One of these paths follows the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The second path is located on the zero meridian, on the eastern edge of the Weddell Sea, the third - on the Kerguelen Plateau in East Antarctica. The last remaining path leads the iceberg north of the Ross Sea.
Once icebergs begin their journey north, they travel thousands of miles before they melt. The largest of them even reach the shores of South America and New Zealand. How long a future iceberg on the Larsen Glacier will drift depends on whether it remains intact after breaking off. There is a possibility that it breaks up into smaller pieces. In addition, the iceberg can run aground. Thomas Rakov believes that the iceberg has a chance to drift for about a year through the Weddell Sea, along the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. If so, it will follow a northeasterly course to South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Given its massive weight, the iceberg will last eight to ten years afloat. This is the maximum lifespan of wandering icebergs at the moment.
