Page 115 - Super Earth Encyclopedia

DRIFTING ICY

ISLANDS

ICEBERGS

In the polar regions, the cold climate enables glaciers
to flow all the way to the coast, spilling out into the sea
as floating tongues of ice. As the tides rise and fall, they
fracture the glaciers so pieces snap off, tumble into the
sea, and drift away as icebergs. Many are quite small,
but some icebergs are colossal floating islands that can
drift for years in the ocean currents before melting away.
They are a serious hazard to shipping, as the fate of
the giant ocean liner Titanic proved in 1912.

AT A GLANCE

• LOCATION Cold oceans
• FORMATION Fragments of glaciers
that have drifted out to sea
• SIZE The largest known iceberg
was bigger than Belgium
• LONGEVITY Up to five years

STATS AND FACTS

HIDDEN ICE BREAKING AWAY
Most icebergs
occur in the Ninety percent Every year, up to
50,000 big icebergs
of an iceberg’s
North Atlantic bulk is hidden; break away from
near Greenland, just 10 percent the glaciers of
and in the is visible. Greenland.
Southern Ocean
around Antarctica.
TEMPERATURE An iceberg may have a core
temperature lower than -4°F (-20°C).
°C -20 0 20
HEIGHT
°F 0 25 50 FROZEN WORLD
UP TO
525
FEET
(160 M)
ABOVE SEA
LEVEL
113

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