Over 100 icebergs drifting to New Zealand: official

Yahoo News 23 Nov 09;

SYDNEY (AFP) – More than 100, and possibly hundreds, of Antarctic icebergs are floating towards New Zealand in a rare event which has prompted a shipping warning, officials said on Monday.

An Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist said the ice chunks, spotted by satellite photography, had passed the Auckland Islands and were heading towards the main South Island, about 450 kilometres (280 miles) northeast.

Scientist Neal Young said more than 100 icebergs -- some measuring more than 200 metres (650 feet) across -- were seen in just one cluster, indicating there could be hundreds more.

He said they were the remains of a massive ice floe which split from the Antarctic as sea and air temperatures rise due to global warming.

"All of these have come from a larger one that was probably 30 square kilometres (11.6 square miles) in size when it left Antarctica," Young told AFP.

"It's done a long circuit around Antarctica and now the bigger parts of it are breaking up and producing smaller ones."

He said large numbers of icebergs had not floated this close to New Zealand since 2006, when a number came within 25 kilometres of the coastline -- the first such sighting since 1931.

"They're following the same tracks now up towards New Zealand. Whether they make it up to the South Island or not is difficult to tell," Young said.

New Zealand has already issued coastal navigation warnings for the area in the Southern Ocean where the icebergs have been seen.

"It's really just a general warning for shipping in that area to be on the alert for icebergs," said Maritime New Zealand spokesman Ross Henderson.

The icebergs are smaller remnants of the giant chunks seen off Australia's Macquarie Island this month, including one estimated at two kilometres (1.2 miles) and another twice the size of Beijing's "Bird's Nest" Olympic Stadium.

Young earlier told AFP he expected to see more icebergs in the area if the Earth's temperature continues to increase.

"If the current trends in global warming were to continue I would anticipate seeing more icebergs and the large ice shelves breaking up," he said.

When icebergs last neared New Zealand in 2006, a sheep was helicoptered out to be shorn on one of the floes in a publicity stunt by the country's wool industry.

'Icebergs heading to New Zealand'
BBC News 25 Nov 09;

A warning has been issued to ships in the southern Pacific Ocean after more than 100 iceberg were spotted drifting towards New Zealand.

The icebergs, some of which are 200m (650ft) in size, are believed to have broken from an Antarctic ice floe.

Many scientists have said they believe these segments will break up long before reaching the New Zealand coastline.

The last time such a large flotilla was spotted so nearby was in 2006.

Maritime New Zealand has issued the alert to vessels in the area although it is not a major shipping lane.

Spokesman Ross Henderson said: "It is really just a general warning for shipping in that area to be on the alert for icebergs."

Earlier spot

Glaciologist Neal Young, from the Australian Antarctic Division, said the flotilla was heading towards New Zealand's main South Island.

Mr Young said satellite photography spotted just one cluster of icebergs but that was not to say more were around.

He said the closest iceberg - about 30m high (98ft), was 160 miles (257.5km) south east of New Zealand's Stewart Island.

Earlier this month the Australian government organisation reported larger icebergs were seen floating off Tasmania's Macquarie Island territory. It is believed this particular flotilla stems from those giant chunks - one which was estimated to be double the size of Beijing's "Bird's Nest" Olympic Stadium.

A number of scientists say they believe the icebergs originally broke away from the Ross Sea Ice Shelf in 2000 and have been drifting and slowly breaking apart since then, reports say.

In 2006, a number of icebergs from the same broken shelf came within 16 miles (25km) of the coastline. Before that, the last sighting was in 1931.

Mike Williams, an oceanographer from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, said since the icebergs were moving at a speed of just 16 miles (25km) a day, he did not expect many of them to reach New Zealand's coastline.

Glaciologist Wendy Lawson, from the UK's Canterbury University, downplayed the sightings.

She told the AP news agency: "Icebergs this far north [near New Zealand] are not that unusual.

"If an iceberg starts off large, it will last longer in the sea. Its movement and where it ends up is determined by the weather, wind, ocean currents and the temperature," she said.

Scientists are now investigating the conditions which have allowed the icebergs to travel in such a large form for so long.