Scientists found an impressive piece of ice, with edges perfectly cut at right angles, in Antarctica, the continent located to the south of the planet.
An IceBridge Operation plane, part of an aerial survey of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on polar ice, discovered this impressive iceberg while flying over the northern Antarctic Peninsula on October 16th, 2018.
“I often see icebergs with relatively straight edges, but I have never really seen one like this before”, said Jeremy Harbeck, a mission scientist, designed to assess changes in the ice height of several glaciers.
According to the newspaper ABC of Spain, the iceberg measures 1.6 kilometers in length and it is estimated that only 10% of its total mass is shown on water. The reason for its unusual shape can lead to the most extreme theories. But the researcher believes that it has probably just come off another platform.
Kelly Brunt, a glaciologist at NASA and the University of Maryland, told LiveScience that there are 2 types of icebergs: the one we imagine hit and sank the Titanic, which looks like prisms or triangles on its surface and the so-called tabular ones. “The former has a gigantic irregular area covered by the waters, while the latter reflects the regular geometric shape of their visible part”, he said.
The research flight departed from Punta Arenas, Chile, as part of a 5-week IceBridge deployment, which began on October 10th and is scheduled to conclude on November 18th.
