Massive iceberg spotted near Ukrainian Antarctic station - As long as Kyiv's Khreshchatyk
Ukrainian polar explorers took a photo of a unique iceberg (photo: facebook.com/AntarcticCenter)
Ukrainian polar explorers showed a photo of a unique giant, an iceberg as long as Khreshchatyk Street. According to the National Antarctic Scientific Center (NANC) press service, it has been floating near our Akademik Vernadsky Station for about a month.
Why the iceberg near the Akademik Vernadsky Station is unique
According to measurements by Ukrainian polar explorers, the ice block floating near the Antarctic station is 1,285 meters long.
"That is the length of the main street of Kyiv," noted NANC.
Iceberg as long as Khreshchatyk (photo: facebook.com/AntarcticCenter/Yevhen Shatalov, Zoya Shvydka, Oleksandr Poluden)
They also reported that:
- The highest visible part of this iceberg is 80 meters.
- The width is about 90 meters.
"This is my sixth winter at Vernadsky, and I have never seen such huge icebergs here," shared Oleksandr Poluden, head of the 30th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition (UAE).
Huge iceberg near Vernadsky (photo: facebook.com/AntarcticCenter/Yevhen Shatalov, Zoya Shvydka, Oleksandr Poluden)
He added that the polar explorers observe it directly from the station's windows, although the iceberg drifts several tens of kilometers from the island.
This refers to Galindez Island in the Argentine Islands archipelago (Western Antarctica), where the Ukrainian Antarctic station "Akademik Vernadsky" is located.
The iceberg is so large that it can be monitored from the window of Vernadsky (photo: facebook.com/AntarcticCenter/Yevhen Shatalov, Zoya Shvydka, Oleksandr Poluden)
Experts said that by shape, it is a tabular iceberg:
- with vertical sides;
- with a flat top.
"It looks like a huge ice island in the middle of the ocean," shared NANC.
Ice island near Vernadsky (photo: facebook.com/AntarcticCenter/Yevhen Shatalov, Zoya Shvydka, Oleksandr Poluden)
Regarding where this ice giant near Vernadsky came from and where it will go next, polar explorers assume it broke off from one of the ice shelves to the south: George VI or Wilkins.
"Our scientists will monitor the iceberg’s further fate, and we will keep you updated," clarified the Antarctic Scientific Center press service.
The iceberg remains under close observation by scientists (photo: facebook.com/AntarcticCenter/Yevhen Shatalov, Zoya Shvydka, Oleksandr Poluden)
What is known about the largest icebergs recorded by researchers
According to NANC information, such tabular icebergs break off from ice shelves and can have extraordinary sizes.
For example, the largest recorded iceberg, B-15, had an area of 11,000 square kilometers (length—almost 300 km), but it melted.
Currently, the largest iceberg is considered to be A23a with an area of about 3.1 thousand square kilometers.
"Just imagine – almost 4 Kyiv cities would fit on it," noted NANC.
This iceberg broke off from the Filchner ice shelf in 1986 with the Soviet seasonal station "Druzhna-1" (later, structures and equipment were removed and transferred to another station).
The A23a had been stuck on the bottom of the Weddell Sea for many years. But in 2020, it began drifting and reached the sub-Antarctic South Georgia Island (distance over 2,000 km).
It ran aground there in March this year and is breaking apart: thousands of fragments are recorded around it.
Publication by NANC (screenshot: facebook.com/AntarcticCenter)
Earlier, Ukrainian polar explorers shared footage of an incredible optical phenomenon resembling "a ring with three suns."
