Iceberg B15A Breaks Up

The European Space Agency says its Envisat satellite has been tracking the movement of the drifting ice continuously since the beginning of this year.

&to=http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/88/354/16280_Cryosat.html' target=_blank>ESA scientists say the most recent imagery shows the bottle-shaped iceberg split into nine knife-shaped icebergs and a myriad of smaller pieces on Oct. 27-28.

Measuring, until last week, around 71 miles (115 kilometers) in length, the B-15A tabular iceberg apparently ran aground off Cape Adare, the northernmost corner of the Victoria Land Coast, the Paris-headquartered ESA said. That apparently led to the flexing and straining that resulted in the break-up.

B-15A had been the largest remaining section of the even larger B-15 iceberg that calved from the nearby Ross Ice Shelf in March 2000 before breaking up into smaller sections off McMurdo Island, informs PhysOrg.com.

According to European Space Agency (ESA), Measuring – until last week - around 115 kilometres in length with an area exceeding 2500 square kilometres, the B-15A tabular iceberg had apparently run aground off Cape Adare, the northernmost corner of the Victoria Land Coast. This stranding appears to have led to flexing and straining which resulted in the break-up.