Iceberg, iceberg!

A massive block of ice, known as the B17B was sighted on December 9 some 1,700 kilometers (1,054 miles) south southwest of Australia‘s western coast. This prompted a maritime alert for vessels within the area.

The iceberg became smaller as it tracked north and east. It’s now about 115 square kilometers but still twice the size of Manhattan.

Neal Young, an Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist said, “There are now many more smaller icebergs calving off B17B, measuring up to several kilometres in length, and spread over more than a thousand kilometres of ocean.”

Young was tracking the B17B using satellite images from NASA and the European Space Agency. He said it measured 400 square kilometres in area and 40 metres high when it first broke off from Antarctica.

Young is also predicting that the B17B will dissolve but he can’t say exactly when, adding that the water it’s floating on is about six to eight degrees Celsius (45 F)–a warm temperature for an iceberg.

(via Yahoo News)