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Iceberg Bigger Than Jamaica Forming South Of New Zealand AUCKLAND (AFP) - An iceberg bigger than Jamaica and potentially the largest ever known is forming in Antarctica’s Ross Sea, south of New Zealand, authorities confirmed. An official at New Zealand’s Scott Base, the nearest to the point the iceberg is forming, confirmed they and their neighbors at the United States McMurdo Sound base were monitoring it. The University of Wisconsin’s Antarctic Meteorological Research Center has warned on its website the massive iceberg was "perhaps the largest on record" and added it had broken free. It measures 182 miles in length and 22 miles in width (around 4366 square miles) and has broken off the Ross Ice Shelf between Ross and Roosevelt Islands at 80 degrees south, about 2,356 miles south of New Zealand. The area is within New Zealand’s polar claim and it
is expected authorities will issue a warning to shipping. However very
little shipping, other than illegal toothfish operators, are in the Ross
Sea at this time of the year.
Newswires |
