100 icebergs heading for New Zealand

Wednesday, 25 November 2009 00:00

Some 100 icebergs from the Antarctica are heading towards New Zealand, and the authorities are warning the ship traffic in the area.

According to Australian experts from the Antarctic Division, the icebergs, which have been observed via satellite, have passed the Auckland islands and are now heading towards South Island, Danish daily Berlingske Tidende writes.

According to the Antarctic scientist Neal Young, there are around 100 icebergs and several of them are more than 200 metres wide. The icebergs are moving in one big cluster which indicates that additional hundreds of icebergs could be on their way.

 
30 square feet of ice

The icebergs most likely come from a huge floe which has splinted in the arctic sea due to a rise in temperatures because of global warming, experts say. The floe can have been as big as 30 square feet when it tore itself away in Antarctica, Neal Young say.

The floe has moved the entire way around Antarctica and has now separated into smaller pieces, which produces the many icebergs, he says.

Ross Henderson, a spokesperson from Maritime New Zealand says that they have issued a general warning to the ship traffic in the entire area.

Source: Berlingske Tidende, Denmark