Friday, December 11, 2020

The iceberg approacheth

 

Wow, days have passed since I blogged last.  I have collected lots and lots of material to comment on, and I'm going to try manfully to catch up.  I'm a lighthouse behind, too.  

So, to start, let's take a look at the slowest-moving drama in the entire global world (yes, I know that's redundant).   That is, whether or not the biggest iceberg in the world is going to collide with the Southern Ocean island of South Georgia.

One of the last things I posted was about this, in fact.   Since then, well, the iceberg has gotten closer to South Georgia.  But today's image makes me think it might slide by to the south.  It'll be a close call, though.

The first image is from December 9.  I'm using NASA's cool Worldview Web site to do this.  I've been trying to consistently measure from the approximate center of the berg to the approximate center of South Georgia.







Now, for December 10, I kept the December 9 measurement line on the image.  Clouds were present, but the big white berg was still visible.  Obviously it's closer, but it's also moving both north and east.









Next is December 11.  This surprised me, as it looks a lot closer.  However, note that it also appears to be turning -- the "bow" of the berg has dipped to the south.








I wish there was a good way to visualize the currents down there.  I'm pretty sure the British Navy and British Antarctic Survey are doing their best to predict what's going to happen, but I haven't seen any predictions stated.   So, literally, we have to watch and take it day-by-day.



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