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A massive iceberg is drifting off Macquarie Island, half way between New Zealand and Antarctica - Source: ONE News -
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Scientists are watching a chunk of Antarctica that is travelling
towards New Zealand.
The massive iceberg was first spotted near Macquarie Island and is
drifting north between Antarctica and New Zealand.
The floating ice cube of gigantic proportions was first spotted by Australian scientist Dean Miller.
"We pulled out the binoculars that we use for work on the seals and, sure enough, it was a huge floating island of ice basically and, yeah, it was an incredible sight," Miller says.
The giant iceberg is estimated to be about 500 metres long - nearly twice as long as the famous liner Titanic which went down with the loss of more than 1,500 lives after hitting an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean.
However, most of the iceberg is below the surface and it would dwarf New Zealand's tallest structure, the Sky Tower, by almost 100 metres.
Glaciologist Neil Young told Channel Nine News he thinks the iceberg broke off from Antarctica nearly 10 years ago. And he says while it is impressive above water, most of the berg sits up to 350 metres below the surface.
It is just a few years since this sort of spectacle has been seen off New Zealand shores.
Three years ago a family of icebergs put on a dramatic show as they drifted up the east coast of the South Island. Scientists believed the massive iceberg may have held as much as 60 million tonnes of ice before it broke up in warmer waters. Dunedin locals are hoping that this one gets just as close.
Niwa's Mike Williams says tracking the massive iceberg has not been easy.
"Basically the cloud cover has been so scattered, trying to look for a white iceberg under white cloud is pretty hard," he says.
If it does drift towards New Zealand, tourist operators, like Graeme Gale from Helicopters Otago, are at the ready.
"If it happens, it happens," Gale says.
Williams says they are not sure which way it will go.
"It's about to get on the big motorway that is the currents of the southern ocean and we don't know which off ramp it'll chose. Hopefully it'll choose one that'll bring it closer to us," he says.
The iceberg could create major problems in the warmer water as it breaks up into smaller pieces known as growlers. Experts say these can be dangerous as they sit almost submerged in the water and if a vessel such as a yacht hit one it would be in "big trouble".
