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Giant Iceberg to Collide with Glacier

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the snow-plowing dept.

OECD writes "NASA reports that a massive 100-mile-long iceberg is on a collision course (movie) with a floating glacier near the McMurdo Research Station in Antarctica. NASA scientists expect a collision to occur no later than January 15, 2005."

2 of 423 comments (clear)

  1. Need a better view by Albinoman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Things like this dont happen too often. Surely someone can sacrifice a few bucks to set up a camera in the front row. Maybe it could be some inspiration for those CGI effects in Hollywood.

  2. Ooooh 300 million tons by asliarun · · Score: 5, Interesting

    (been a long time since i did some math)

    From the site:-
    "The B-15A iceberg is a 3,000-square-kilometer (1,200-square-mile) behemoth"

    Pulling figures from the nether region, i'm assuming the berg to be 100mts high. This would give us:-
    Surface area = 3000 sq. km = 3000 x 1000 x 1000 = 3 x 10^9 sq. mt.
    Thus, volume of berg = 3 x 10^9 x 100 = 3 x 10^11 cubic mts.

    Now, i know that roughly, 1 cubic meter of ice (water) = 1000kg.

    Thus, weight of berg = 3 x 10^11 x 1000 = 3 x 10^14 kgs.

    That's 3000000,000,00,000kgs. = 3000000,000,00 metric tons = 300000000 kilotons = 300000 million tons!

    If my math is correct, then oooh boy, this is going to be one heck of a fender bender.