Antarctic iceberg wanders a long way

A HUGE iceberg has been spotted off Macquarie Island, halfway between Antarctica and Australia.

The iceberg, estimated to be 500m long and 50m high, was spotted about 8km north-west of the island by Australian Antarctic Division expeditioners this week.

Fur seal biologist Dean Miller was the first to see the iceberg while on his way to visit a seal colony at the island's North Head.

"I've never seen anything like it - we looked out to the horizon and just saw this huge floating island of ice," Dr Miller said on the AAD website.

www.news.com.au...

Interesting to see where it travels to

That's awesome. I want to hop on and ride it. That would be fun.

Probably not ... it will move exremely slow for a while and start to break up in a few months. Not to mention what would you do? Sit on ice and watch the water go by? I am just messing with you. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a more common occurence in the next few years.

www.themercury.com.au...

Theres a pic here

That is insane looking! What a beast. Its 400 feet longer than the empire state building is tall!

It also looks oddly shaped.

woah thats one mean lookin piece of ice. dunno about you guys but it kinda reminds me of the independence day ship.

hmm maybe its another of lex luthors new islands

[edit on 6-11-2009 by jaguar84]

reply to post by MissMegs

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Wow, imagine seeing that in the flesh ... what a beast !

Thanks for posting the pic. Woody

hey slow down it's just some big ice cube for a kiwi drink


... seriously damn big !

We should tow it back to Australia and pour it in some of the dams,

Or make a huge icy cold swimming pool.....summers pretty much here

Quite unusual to see one as far as Macquarie Island

It's a big, frozen BORG berg!

It's a Borg ICE-cube!

Resistance is futile!

[edit on 6-11-2009 by nikiano]

[edit on 6-11-2009 by nikiano]

It almost resembles a Pykrete Ice ship, proposed during WWII, an ice ship made by mixing sawdust/wood pulp with sea water and freezing it using an onboard refrigeration system (see Project Habbakuk), as long as it was kept frozen it was pretty strong.

I am dismayed by its almost precise shape, as if it was purposely cut out of an ice shelf and set adrift. Do you think global warming chicken littles will use this as a talking point in trying to convince people we need the carbon tax treaty signed into law?

On another subject, it would, in my opinion, be a great way to ship clean water to Australia or anywhere else, for that matter. The Earth is almost three quarters water, and cities around the world are claiming we don't have enough. And they are outlawing rain collecting. There is something fishy going on in the world of climate control. I don't like it.

But I do like your post on this. Thank you for sharing it with us. Very cool.

reply to post by Nyhee

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Funny thing is? The company that was outlawing rain collecting in Bolivia - Bechtel - is also spending money over fist to convince you climate change is made up?

Food for thought

Wow, and we are only seeing 1/3 of this beast.

I wonder how such a large chunk of ice like this could break off. The ice shelves that have been breaking off don't look that tall. Did this think fall into the ocean? If it fell into the ocean, I would think it cause one huge wave.

looks like they are playing on both sides of the issue:

www.bechtel.com...

I checked out whether this was the biggest iceberg ever, this site listed below says there was one as tall as the Washington Monument. Wow.

www.infoplease.com...

An iceberg floated as far as new zealands' shores in 2006 for the first time ever.

www.msnbc.msn.com...



pretty cool! its not something you see every day!!