First Sea-Level Photographs Released Of Massive Antarctic Iceberg

The photographs were taken by the crew of the Laurence M. Gould, an NSF polar research vessel that circumnavigated the iceberg earlier this month. The Gould is the only known surface vessel to photograph the iceberg and to collect samples of its ice.

The size of B-10-A is estimated at 24 by 48 statute miles. The Gould reports that it took the ship 12 hours to circumnavigate B-10-A at a speed of 10 knots. Besides photographing the iceberg, the crew plotted its main body with the ship's bridge-mounted radar and collected about 40 pounds of blue ice fragments for further study. A plot of the ship's track, which outlines the dimensions of the iceberg, is also available in digital form.

The iceberg is the remnant of a piece that broke off the Thwaites Ice Tongue, an extension of the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica in the early 1990's. In the summer of 1995, the iceberg broke into two pieces; the largest became B-10-A.