Post by jack on Nov 8, 2006 3:01:25 GMT -6
Gidday
Well it's supposed to be bloody spring down here.
The vineyard I work in has had frost damage lately. Today we have had rain and hail and now snow down below 1000 feet on the hills.
And now we have a hundred icebergs coming our way.
13,500km journey to NZ for icebergs
08 November 2006
MATTHEW TORBIT
A flotilla of 100 icebergs drifting toward the South Island has travelled more than 13,500 kilometres and were once part of a much larger iceberg, which broke free from the other side of Antarctica.
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research oceanographer Mike Williams said that in 2000 an iceberg 167km long and 32km wide broke off the Ronne Ice Shelfon the same longitude as eastern South America.
The iceberg, named A-43A, subsequently broke into pieces, and one of these was probably the parent of the icebergs drifting toward New Zealand.
The crew of an air force Orion, on a routine patrol, spotted the first of the icebergs about 300km south of Invercargill on Friday.
The biggest iceberg was about 1.8km long, 1.3km wide, and towered about 120 metres above water.
With 90 per cent of an iceberg under water, that meant the largest was about 1.2km in depth.
Dr Williams said it was likely a large iceberg carved from A-43A became caught in the chilly Antarctic Circumpolar Current and spent five years drifting eastward.
The icebergs are expected to melt or collapse before reaching the New Zealand coast, but Dr Williams said there was an outside chance they might be spotted from the mainland provided they broke up into smaller icebergs.
I am definately voting for global warming.
Well it's supposed to be bloody spring down here.
The vineyard I work in has had frost damage lately. Today we have had rain and hail and now snow down below 1000 feet on the hills.
And now we have a hundred icebergs coming our way.
13,500km journey to NZ for icebergs
08 November 2006
MATTHEW TORBIT
A flotilla of 100 icebergs drifting toward the South Island has travelled more than 13,500 kilometres and were once part of a much larger iceberg, which broke free from the other side of Antarctica.
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research oceanographer Mike Williams said that in 2000 an iceberg 167km long and 32km wide broke off the Ronne Ice Shelfon the same longitude as eastern South America.
The iceberg, named A-43A, subsequently broke into pieces, and one of these was probably the parent of the icebergs drifting toward New Zealand.
The crew of an air force Orion, on a routine patrol, spotted the first of the icebergs about 300km south of Invercargill on Friday.
The biggest iceberg was about 1.8km long, 1.3km wide, and towered about 120 metres above water.
With 90 per cent of an iceberg under water, that meant the largest was about 1.2km in depth.
Dr Williams said it was likely a large iceberg carved from A-43A became caught in the chilly Antarctic Circumpolar Current and spent five years drifting eastward.
The icebergs are expected to melt or collapse before reaching the New Zealand coast, but Dr Williams said there was an outside chance they might be spotted from the mainland provided they broke up into smaller icebergs.
I am definately voting for global warming.
