Epic Iceberg Smashup Could Change Currents

Pictured in a January 7 satellite image—about a month before a massive collision—the Luxembourg-size iceberg B9B floats toward the hundred-mile-long (160-kilometer-long) floating "tongue" of Antarctica’s Mertz Glacier. The tongue is already weakened by growing rifts on both sides of its midsection.

The 60-mile-long (97-kilometer-long) B9B iceberg smashed into the Mertz Glacier Tongue on February 12 or 13—creating a second, 48-mile-long (78-kilometer-long) iceberg, according to a the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACECRC).

The two icebergs are now floating at sea, side by side, and debris from the breakup is filling the once clear waterway beside Mertz Glacier (map). Prior to the separation, iceberg B9B had spent nearly 20 years floating close to the glacier.

Some experts warn the newly floating ice could seriously impact ocean circulation—causing unknown consequences for Earth's climate and the region’s marine animals.