Antarctic icebergs are reportedly floating towards New Zealand and ships have been warned about the dangers these floating ice chunks could cause. These giant chunks of ice, some measuring more than 650 feet across, have become somewhat of a tourist attraction. More than 100, if not hundreds, of icebergs were first spotted by satellite photography.
One of the icebergs was been spotted from the New Zealand shore, attracting tourists via helicopter. Scientists are trying to determine where it and several other giant chunks drifting in the country's waters originated from.
The floating ice blocks have become a tourist attraction, as sightseers pay up to $330 each to fly over the icebergs that were first spotted headed toward southern New Zealand several weeks ago.
An iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may then become frozen into pack ice.
Alternatively, it may come to rest on the seabed in shallower water, causing ice scour (also known as ice gouging) or becoming an ice island.
In the 20th century, several scientific bodies were established to study and monitor the icebergs. The International Ice Patrol, formed in 1914 in response to the Titanic disaster, monitors iceberg dangers near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and provide the "limits of all known ice" in that vicinity to the maritime community. Icebergs have been around since the very start of an ice age.
Mike Williams, an oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, said a sample has been taken from one iceberg when a helicopter landed on it several days ago, and has been sent for analysis to Victoria University in Wellington.
"I believe it came from the (Antarctic's) Ronne ice shelf," Williams said in an article on MSNBC.
"Some people have proposed it came from the Ross Sea but I think that it is unlikely. The current would have made that very difficult and they would have had to travel very fast," he noted, adding that the sample should resolve the matter.
Williams said the last time an iceberg was visible from the New Zealand shore was June 1931.
Helicopters Otago pilot Graeme Gale said the icebergs continued to be an impressive sight, regardless of how many times he flew over them with tourists.
"It won't last forever but its pretty unique," he said.
See a video of the incredible icebergs off the coast of New Zealand here.
Written by Cheryl Phillips
HULIQ.com
sources: www.uscg-iip.org, MSNBC, US Coast Guard
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