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October 11, 2005
B15A - Another Update
One of the other "things" on this blog is the "Saga of B15A". B15A is an iceberg, once the largest iceberg on Earth, and B15A had an attitude problem, specifically an attitude problem with Penguins. You see, when B15A broke off the Antarctic Ice Shelf, the currents took it to the Ross Sea, where it blocked in the "fast ice" (ice that formed each Antarctic winter and broke up and floated out to sea each Antarctic summer). The "fast ice" remained trapped in the Ross Sea and caused problems for the Penquin rookery nearby, the Penguins had to walk an extra 20km to reach open water and a source of food, and they had to do this on two inch legs.
Additional difficulties were caused by the berg with regard to the resupply of McMurdo Research Station, the berg and trapped "fast ice" prevented the traditional resupply vessels from reaching the isolated base and the small community there. A broken down icebreaker added to the problem, but where there's a will there's a way, and the U.S. and Russia sent additional icebreakers to clear a path to the base.
B15A has been biding it's time in darkness over the Antarctic winter, but now the sun is shining again and MODIS has a great image showing the berg and it's position relative to the Ross Sea.
Click for larger image
If you look in the top center of the image, you'll see a flat rectangular piece of ice within a larger field, that's B15A. You can see that the berg has moved away from the Ross Sea and shouldn't be causing a problem for the Penguins or McMurdo this year. The "fast ice" should break up and move out to sea as normal, and with a little luck, B15A will also move out to sea where it will eventually melt and raise the levels of the worlds oceans by a miniscule fraction of an inch.
So there's an update on B15A for you iceberg fans, and in case you're wondering why I keep coming back to B15A here and here and here and here and here and here, it's simply because the search phrase "B15A" has brought more visitors to this blog than any other single google search term. Which ain't saying a whole lot, but you gotta play to your audience, ya know.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at October 11, 2005 7:35 PM
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Comments
Hah yes, you do have to play to your audience. And for those of us who never knew anything about it, it's an interesting story.
Posted by: Kyle at October 15, 2005 6:10 PM
