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March 30, 2005

Icebergs and sunsets

Strangely enough, the one solitary thing that has driven more people to this blog from the "outside" (meaning google searches or stumblers from people I don't know either in the real world or online) is the iceberg B15A.

I'm not exactly sure what prompted me to first mention it back on December 16th, but I'd read some articles about it when it originally broke off an became the "world's biggest iceberg". I can remember conversations and ponderings about the potential for icebergs to provide water to irrigate the world's deserts, change local climates and other harnessing schemes to make use of thes bo-hee-muths of frozen fresh water floating in the briny sea.

Over the weeks and months, I've periodically checked back on B15A and it's antics as it played havoc with penguin colonies and even threatened (not really, but it made for good news) the resupply of McMurdo Station on the icy southern continent. I've even made an online acquaintence with Brien Barnett, who was the editor of The Arctic Sun, the newspaper for McMurdo, and we've exchanged emails about B15A and life on that big block of ice known as Antarctica (he was kind enough to explain what "Fast Ice" actually is and the real story of the penguin's long walks on 2 inch legs). More about him later.

So here's a picture from two days ago showing the position of B15A, you may want to go back and look at some of the earlier posts about this big berg to get some perspective if you're new to the blog or just have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about. If you're too lazy to look at the earlier posts, B15A is the large block near the center of the photo that looks similar to an aircraft carrier.

As you look at the picture, notice that the Ross Sea "Fast Ice" (the ice that forms each winter then breaks up each summer) is solidifying once again as winter takes hold down there. Most of this "Fast Ice" breaks up and floats out to sea in the summer, this year however, this ice was bound up by the presence of B15A and remained in the Ross Sea. Now that it's freezing up again, it seems to be pushing the big berg up and away from the continent. However, if you look closer to the right side of B15A, you can see that more ice is forming up and will be hampering the exit of the berg. What the berg will do is anyone's guess, but thanks to modern technology we can keep tabs on it and follow it's progress. I'll continue to post about it until it melts away to nothing or gets out of the available satellite views.

But what about sunsets??? Well, I did say I'd get back to Brien Barnett later didn't I. You see, Brien was the editor of The Arctic Sun. The paper doesn't publish during the winter because the station is basically abandoned of personnel when the Arctic winter sets in. This year however, our faithful correspondent has secured employment at the South Polar Station, where he's now an assistant cook or something like that. I'm sure he has a few hospitality electives in his C.V. that are serving him well now. Brien will be spending the winter at the South Pole (how cool is that) and just the other day, those intrepid souls down south got to watch the sun set for the winter. He captured a nice photo of the event and put it on his blog. Which I must add is an excellent read (much better than mine, both in style and content). Be sure to take a look at his photos and videos and some first hand accounts of life WAY down under.

--Jason

Posted by JasonColeman at March 30, 2005 3:04 PM

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Posted by: brien barnett at April 11, 2005 6:34 AM

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