Iceberg B15-K Collides with Erkström Ice Shelf
25.02.2010 - Water & Oceans, Ice & Snow, Antarctic
Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) for Polar and Marine Research report that the iceberg B15-K collided with the Erkström Ice Shelf in Atka Bay on 11 February 2010. Weighing 400 million tons, the 54 km-long and 5 km-wide iceberg hit the ice shelf in the vicinity of the German Neumayer Station III, creating fissures deep into the ice shelf.
The event drew the attention of logistic experts and scientists, who are making efforts to gain a better understanding of ice mechanics and crack propagation. Along with making in situ observations, scientists and technicians were able to capture the moment of impact using satellite imaging and measure the impact on seismometers at the geophysical observatory at Neumayer Station III. Using the PALAOA acoustic observatory they were able to record the loud underwater sounds created by the impact as well as the response of seals and whales.
The data are being used to reconstruct the impact event. Multiple collisions occurring over nine hours dislodged a 300-metre wide and 700-metre long chunk of ice from the Erkström Ice Shelf. Each impact had an energy equivalent to that released by five to ten tons of explosives.
Along with a number of other large icebergs that have been floating around the coast of Antarctica, B15-K calved off of the Ross Ice Shelf, some 9000 km away from its point of impact. B15-K travelled around Antarctica carried by the counter-clockwise coastal current around Antarctica before colliding with the Erkström Ice Shelf.
