Drifting icebergs and global warming

Icebergs are huge masses of ice which have broken away from glaciers in the Artic and Antarctic regions. With the iceberg recently heading towards Australia many people were thinking whether it go into Australia’s land mass and the concern for fishing swept the nation yet, these huge masses of ice gradually melt away as the upper part is warmed by the sun and the lower part by the warmer waters into which they drift.

The iceberg may be as much as 250 feet high, although only one-ninth is above the surface of the sea it can really be a hazard to shipping. The worst disaster that we all know well enough was the British passenger liner, the Titanic. This fine ship was thought to be unsinkable because, she had double skin and 15 watertight compartments. In April, 1912, the liner struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and despite her double skin and watertight compartments she had knocked into the iceberg and quickly sank. From the 2,207 people on board, more than 1,500 drowned.

These remains of massive ice floe which splits from the Antarctic as air temperatures rise due to global warming. We have all experienced the drastic effect that global warming has on our land mass with the increase of temperature and now bigger parts of the Antarctic are breaking up and producing smaller ones which will continue to float along the currents. Many are anticipating more icebergs as the Earth’s temperature rises and larger ice break up.