Isle of Man-sized iceberg “could hit shipping lanes”, scientists warn

A 270-square-mile iceberg is moving steadily away from the Antarctic glacier that spawned it - and the giant “ice island” could threaten shipping, researchers have warned.

The gigantic iceberg broke off in July, but remained iced in position - but the latest satellite images show “miles” of water between it and Pine Island Glacier, one of Antarctica’s fastest-moving ice streams.

Researchers have warned that once the iceberg leaves Pine Island Bay, it could drift into busy international shipping lanes.

British researchers have been awarded an emergency grant of £50,000 to track the iceberg - using software developed by the UK Met Office to predict its path.

Grant Bigg from the University of Sheffield said, in an interview with the BBC, “In the last couple of days, it has begun to break away and now a kilometre or two of clear water has developed between it and the glacier."

"It often takes a while for bergs from this area to get out of Pine Island Bay but once they do that they can either go eastwards along the coast or they can circle out into the main part of the Southern Ocean.”

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Biggs warns that if the iceberg goes in one particular direction, it will head directly into a busy international shipping lane.

The iceberg is bigger than the Isle of Man, and has been watched by science teams via satellite and research aircraft for more than two years.

Bigg’s team will use data from the German Terrasar-X satellite, along with a computer model developed by the UK Meteorological Office, NEMO-ICB - which may be able to “forecast” the iceberg’s path, break-ups and melting.

The glacier has been closely watched by scientists since a huge rift appeared in the Pine Island Glacier - allowing NASA scientists to fly over to gather data on how such huge “ice islands” form.

Days after spotting the rift, IceBridge researchers flew a survey along 18 miles of the crack to measure its width and depth and collect other data such as ice shelf thickness.

"It was a great opportunity to fly a suite of instruments you can't use from space and gather high-resolution data on the rift," said Studinger.

Soon after, researchers at the German Aerospace Center, or DLR, started keeping a close eye on the crack from space with their TerraSAR-X satellite.

Because TerraSAR-X uses a radar instrument it is able to make observations even during the dark winter months and through clouds.

"Since October 2011, the evolution of the Pine Island Glacier terminus area has been monitored more intensively," said Dana Floricioiu, a DLR research scientist, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.