Australia shipping alert over massive iceberg

In climate news, from today’s Agence France-Press:

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australian authorities Friday issued a shipping alert over a gigantic iceberg that is gradually approaching the country’s southwest coast.

AFP/Australian Antarctic Division/Ho – A NASA satellite image of iceberg B17B (C), floating southwest off the West Australian coast.
AFP/Australian Antarctic Division/Ho – A NASA satellite image of iceberg B17B (C), floating southwest off the West Australian coast.

The Bureau of Meteorology said the once-in-a-century cliff of ice, which dislodged from about a decade ago before drifting north, was being monitored using satellites.

“Mariners are advised that at 1200 GMT on December 9, an iceberg approximately 1,700 kilometres (1,054 miles) south-southwest of the West Australian coast was observed,” it said, giving the iceberg’s coordinates. “The iceberg is 140 square kilometres in area — 19 kilometres long by eight kilometres wide.”

Experts believe the iceberg — known as B17B — is likely to break up as it enters warmer waters nearer Australia, creating hundreds of smaller icebergs in a hazard to passing ships.

“It’s still 1,700 kilometres away, so it’s quite a long way away, it’s not really on our doorstep yet but it’s been heading steadily towards us,” glaciologist Neal Young said Thursday.

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