WEBVTT - How Icebergs Work (Very Cool) 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.480 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know? 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:16.360 From House Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.599 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W Chuck Bryant 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:22.119 and that makes this stuff you should know? How's it 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:26.360 killing everybody? It's a joy stage, Josh, so oh, I 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:28.640 don't know, it's just it's been a joy. Stay. Don't 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:30.280 you think? I'm very glad you think it's been a 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:32.800 joyous day. What do you think? You haven't had a computer, 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:35.479 so you don't care. I know my laptop has been 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:40.840 apparently too full of data to operate whatever that means. Yeah, 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:44.519 he's stuffed it up with fifty gigs of shady stuff. 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:49.040 It's right. Yeah, it's called research, I guess. So every 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:54.080 single bit of that it was hard facts buddy. Yeah. 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:59.040 And songs? Yeah? Videos is that? Well? There you go. 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:02.840 Videos tend to stop stuff up by especially high res ones. Yeah, 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:05.240 that's probably what it was. I would imagine. So on 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:07.959 your work computer, no less, Well, what am I going 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:11.120 to do? Cary? Answer? Computers? Why where are we talking 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.160 about this? I don't know you started it let's hear 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:19.759 the intro. Chuck, Yes, I'm quite sure that. Um, you'll 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:22.120 think I'm kind of stupid for mentioning probably the most 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.560 famous ship ever to be sunk by an iceberg, but 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:29.680 humor me. Of course. We all know the wreck of 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:34.080 the William Carson, which in seven went down off the 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:38.080 coast of Labrador. Uh. It had a number of cars 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:42.160 on board, but more importantly, a hundred and nine souls, right, 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:46.160 which is what they call you when you're to see. Yeah, 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.640 like a hundred and nine souls lost. I never really 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:53.320 hope heard that or paid attention. Really, I thought they 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:56.000 would say lives lost. They say souls. They say souls. 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:58.720 Are they used to old time, you wise, before Kennedy 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:01.120 in the separation of Church and date. I guess right, yeah, 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:03.320 I guess now they call them lives before they were 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:07.240 souls all souls lost. That's sad. Yeah, it makes it 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:12.959 even sader. It's like the saint crying right under certain circumstances. Um. 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:16.359 But the luckily a hundred and nine souls were not lost. 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:19.520 Zero souls were lost on the William Carson, as everybody knows. 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:24.280 The cars went down, though, which is a tragedy for 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.880 the insurance companies covering those cars. But as I said, 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.480 like every school child knows the story of the William Carson. 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:32.640 Did you know that there were other ships that have 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:37.040 hit icebergs? I was not aware of any. It's true. 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:39.359 The Lady of the Lake Okay, yeah, I didn't know 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:41.440 about that one went down in the Grand Banks. Didn't 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:44.280 make a movie about that. Uh no, no, you're thinking 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:47.440 of ex caliber Um. The Lady of the Lake went 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:50.200 down the Grand Banks on its way to Quebec with 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:55.600 seventy people on board, seventy souls. Um the s s 0:02:56.040 --> 0:03:01.120 hush SHD toft hush and toft okay yeah, um off 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:03.600 the coast of Greenland in nineteen fifty nine on her 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:05.640 maiden voyage. Can you believe this? That makes it so 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:09.400 much worse that it's a maiden voyage. People dead all 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:12.160 because of icebergs. I mean, there's been other ships that 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:16.160 have hit icebergs, but um, all because a chunk of 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.720 floating ice took out an entire ship. Souls and souls 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:22.240 and souls were lost. Yeah. You know, we have a 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.200 young fan named Shelley Stein right now that is about 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:28.359 to throw her iPod through a window. Is that the 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:32.440 person who always wants to hear about that that other ships, thinking, yeah, 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.840 she's been begging for like two years leading into the anniversary. 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:40.160 That's right. Um. Anyway, what's crazy is that all of 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:42.720 these ships were lost. As a matter of fact, between 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:47.600 eighteen eighty two and eighteen passenger liners went down in 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.680 a place called Iceberg Galley. But it was only the 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:54.800 last twenty five years that we started tracking icebergs. What's 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:58.440 even more amazing, though, is that we have learned a 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:00.640 tremendous amount in those twenty five years, and we're still 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:04.280 learning and we will dispense with the learning forth with. 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:08.240 That's right. This is interesting. Was this a grabster? Yeah? Boy, 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:10.120 he puts together a nice article, then he he does. 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:12.120 He knows what he's doing. He's a professional. I never 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.560 feel uh, I never feel bad about about his. But 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:19.440 you feel bad about some of them. Yeah, like the 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:23.760 ones I write, like the ones you write. They're very adventurous. 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.520 They were for the Adventure Channel right at one point. 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:30.920 So chuck, um. I think people they're sitting there sitting 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:33.880 at home thinking right now, like they're talking about icebergs 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:36.240 and it's just a chunk of floating ice and You're 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:39.479 absolutely right. It is just a chunk of floating as 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:42.600 not just a chunk. There's so much more to us um. 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:51.360 For example, iceberg salt water, Nope, fresh water yep. Why well, Uh, 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:55.200 I learned virtually everything I've ever known about icebergs within 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:58.640 the past forty same here, by the way, Uh, it 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:01.920 is ice um, but it's not sea ice or pack ice. 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:05.320 Like when you see deadly sketching there motoring through that 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:08.080 that sea ice. Those those aren't little chunks of iceberg. 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:13.479 That's saltwater, right, that's frozen seawater. Frozen seawater and iceberg 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.479 was um is a piece of a glacier that has 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:22.520 busted off or calved, calved, calved like having a calf, 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:28.760 like giving birth to a cat is calving, calving, calving, calving. Yeah, man, 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:31.239 I had it until you threw me off. Well saying 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:36.039 cal I thought it would be calving, calving, caving away 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:38.599 from a glacier. How many times we just say calving 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:41.880 and a glacier. Uh, Let's talk about glaciers for a second. 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:47.520 Glaciers are packed snow basically. Well, yeah, but I mean 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:49.880 they're a little more interesting than that. Well, yeah, that's 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:53.719 the that's the base route. Though in certain latitudes, um, 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:56.599 it never gets warm enough for snow to fully melt 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:58.919 all the way in the summertime. So what you have 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:02.039 an accumulation of that snow that builds up over and 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:05.400 over and over again over the centuries, over the eons, 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:08.960 as old as ten thousand years old, sometimes right. Uh, 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:13.000 And that's a glacier. But glaciers are also additionally interesting 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:17.880 in that um, they become so heavy that they over 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:21.400 this freezing thaw cycle and um the accumulation of layers 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.120 that they all of the air bubbles are pressed out 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:29.160 of them. So glaciers are blue, the color of frozen 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:33.000 water with no air in it. Um. And they also 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:36.760 move under the force of their own weight. They moved downward, 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:40.280 downhill towards sea level, because sea levels as downhill as 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.000 it gets right until you hit the sea, that's right. 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:47.200 And um, So because of this, they they are this 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:53.200 ultra dense form of ice. So it slips down, floats 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:57.440 out into the sea. Tidal motions eventually will cause little 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:00.640 cracks and fissures, and then a piece of the glacier 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:04.440 will break off and boom there that's an iceberg. It's 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:08.440 a freshwater piece of the glacier freshwater glacier chunks, right, 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.440 And it's freshwater because it's made of snow, not seawater. Um. 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.960 And when you said that it floats out into the sea. 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:19.400 That's called an ice shelf. Um. And up north and 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:23.560 northern latitudes, Um, the biggest ice shelves are found on 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:27.239 the western coast of Greenland. Was there Arctic or northern 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:29.640 icebergs that are formed up there off of those glaciers 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:33.520 down south in Antarctica where there are penguins. But it's 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:35.880 not the only place there's penguins. I want to make 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:38.600 sure everybody knows. I know. And no polar bears. No, 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:42.400 only a pool would say that. Yes. Um, the pretty 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:46.040 much the continent of Antarctica is ringed with ice shelves 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:48.600 and there's a lot of open sea, so the icebergs 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:53.040 can get really big. They can keep extending, extending, extending, 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:54.840 But then like you said, yeah, they break off and 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.440 then you have an iceberg. Don't talk about ice. Yeah, 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:00.760 this is fascinating. Like I want over this again and 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.040 again and again until I finally got it, and I 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:05.960 feel like I got it. It's so easy though I 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:10.640 was making a lot of pot of it. Yeah. Uh, ice, 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:12.880 as we all know, is the solid phase of water 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:16.280 you have you know, liquid solid gas. Iis a solid 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:20.480 phase thirty two degrees fahrenheit for fresh water zero celsius. 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:23.120 Salt water is gonna need to be a little bit 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:28.440 colder because, um, there are basically salt molecules getting in 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:32.240 the way of the ice forming. Well. They they they 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.760 move faster I believe than water molecules, and it takes 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.600 a lower temperature to slow them down. And also it's 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:42.520 greater density if you're talking saltwater, right, which is important, 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:49.000 very important. But ice also is the is peculiar meaning unique, 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:54.040 and that it's the only solid phase of any substance. 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:59.040 I believe that is less dense than the liquid phase. 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:02.439 So ice is less sense the water, and then seawater 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.720 is denser than fresh water. So well, and it's easy 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:09.440 to remember the ice is less dense because when you 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.440 put a little ice cube in your little chardonnay this summer, 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:16.920 if you're a red neck, it'll float. Yeah, because there's 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:20.920 little uh, ice forms in a crystalline shape, so those 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:23.680 that leaves area for gaps, I guess, And so what 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:27.360 is the air in there? Uh? I'm sure there's just 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.960 less dense. It's just the it's just it's less dense. Basically, 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:33.079 if you take water and freeze it, you can think 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:35.760 of it as spreading out, so it gets bigger, has 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.360 it has a larger volume, but it'll weigh the same 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.360 as that lesser amount of water, right, And when you 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:47.560 put something, say ice, in water, it's buoyant in that 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:52.000 the amount of water displaces has to equal the weight 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:55.360 of the ice that's displacing it. But since there's more 0:09:55.480 --> 0:10:00.880 ice than an equal weight of water, there's some leftover 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:02.560 that floats. And that is what we call the tip 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:06.000 of the iceberg. And when do you get confused, Yes, 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.360 the tip of the iceberg. That is the part that 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:12.120 sticks out, and it's about, depending on the iceberg, about 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:14.880 one six to one ninth. And I'm sure everyone's seen 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:19.959 those awesome pictures on the interwebs of you know, the 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:22.600 top of the water and under the water of the iceberg. 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.600 It's pretty cool, right, you've seen those. I have very 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.400 nice And the reason there's very variation between how much 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:32.720 iceberg is showing it is because of the variation in 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:36.280 the concentration of salt in seawaters or any particular part 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:40.760 of seawater. And and um. Also uh, some icebergs are 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:45.280 denser than others as more as he said, just like people. Yeah, exactly. 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:49.480 Uh that you mentioned earlier that glacial ice is blue. Um. 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:53.080 That is true. Um. During different melting and freezing cycles, though, 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:57.079 they will turn white because the air gets trapped in there. Um. 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:01.240 And then sometimes these really old icebergs that have formed 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:04.880 at the bottom of these thick Antarctic ice shelves like 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:07.960 that have been around for thousands of years might actually 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:12.400 have a greenish hue because it's just you know, soaked 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.480 up organic matter under there over the years, right and 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:18.520 then so which is kind of a dirty yellow brown. 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:24.080 But icebergs have the tendency to roll over without warning, 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:25.960 which is one reason why you wouldn't want to camp 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:28.439 on an iceberg. No, they're dangerous to be around. They are. 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.200 And actually there was one that floated down to New 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:36.360 Zealand and some helicopter charters were like selling flights to 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:38.040 go check them out, and one of them landed on 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:40.440 the iceberg and they realized prett quickly they shouldn't do 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:44.040 that anymore. Um. But did they like getting short did it? No? 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:45.719 They made it out okay, But when they got back 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.080 and told people, I'm sure some scientists like, wait, what 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:51.680 did you just do? Right? Don't ever do that again? 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:56.160 Tc um, but the iceberg will roll over. And so 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.920 you've got the green part up that's with the light 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.840 reflecting up through the blue park when you get this 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:07.679 brilliant emerald green. And that's some old ice right there, Bubby, Bobby, Yes, Bobby, 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:11.080 I've never said that before. Uh. The life cycle of 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:13.400 an iceberg is pretty interesting too. Why we mentioned they 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:17.160 can be as old as ten thousand years before they 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:22.400 ever reached the ocean, and um, this is like centuries 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:25.840 of compression. So that's why it's so so dense, that's 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:28.920 why it's blue. And then once it calves off though 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:31.640 and and from the glacier, you've got about three to 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:35.800 six years on average, right if it's like say, it's 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.640 up in the in iceberg galley and never strays below parallel, 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:41.720 which is apparently where the water starts to get a 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:45.920 lot warmer. Four Parallel goes for Americans through like the 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:50.240 tip of Minnesota and the Upper Peninsula Michigan. People below 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:54.160 that are like, it's still pretty cold. I imagine, um, 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:56.720 so ones that stay up there and never come back down, 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:59.559 can float around for like fifty years and just kind 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.040 of alt the way slowly and quietly. Right. Ones that 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.640 make it further south, like one made it to Bermuda once, 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.080 which I'm sure was quite a surprise. Um. Those go 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:11.120 away fairly quickly. Uh yeah, and I enjoyed this. Um. 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.640 One account of this expedition. Um. What's the guy's name? 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:18.400 Dr Gregory Stone witnessed and wrote about in his book 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:22.960 Ice Island um, which I believed the largest ones are 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:27.320 called ice island sometimes. Yeah. Right. Um. His quote is 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:31.560 in this iceberg basically became destabilized, and it sounds like 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:35.079 it exploded, like right in front of his face. Yeah. 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:37.720 Well he said that there was an ice debris field 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:40.319 across two miles. Yeah, and he said it was like 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:44.240 shards of crystal shattering. Right. But if you think about it, 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:46.520 that's what happens when you put in ice cuban water. Yeah. 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:48.840 You hear that noise, right, It's called thermal shock. Yeah, 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.640 it's pretty cool. And it's also because ice is less 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:56.400 dense than water. As it's liquefying, it shrinks because think 0:13:56.400 --> 0:14:00.200 about it's contracting and it's pulling apart the outer warm 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:04.360 or layer from the inner colder layer, and this cracks 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:06.880 form and the ice cube essentially explodes. It sounds like 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:08.760 that's the same thing that happened. Yes, when you pour 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:11.240 that that twelve year old scotch on top of your 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:13.760 single cube of ice. If you're into that, I don't 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:15.520 know if you should be doing that. But okay, I'm 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:17.120 not a neat guy. I like my I like it 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:20.520 a little cold, and and I'm not so hardcore with 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:24.040 the single malts, so too remove that bite just a 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:26.480 bit is good for me. You don't so you don't 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:28.640 like take it neat through your nose as that the 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.560 way to do it. Yeah, the way you drink it 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:37.160 with ice through your mouth. Yeah, I know, scotch pure 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:39.880 scoff at me, but scalp away or whatever. Just do 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:43.360 what you like exactly. Um, that it was very supportive. 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:46.920 I meant you as like people in general. Okay, so 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:51.800 that wasn't supportive. Um, let's talk about some factoids and 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:53.960 this this is to me. The fact of the show 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:58.400 is that there are actually six official classifications with their size, 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:01.960 and the first two it sounds like they were having 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:04.200 a lot to drink when they had the naming party 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:08.840 and sobered up a bit, because the smallest one's about 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.320 the size of a car, maybe a little smaller, called growlers, 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:14.240 and then the next one, maybe about the size of 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:18.400 your house, is called a burgie bit. I put the 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:20.880 emphases on a bit like a burgie bit, a burgie bit. 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:23.760 Either way, it's pretty cute. It is very cute. And 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:25.720 then they got I guess sobered up or got bored 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:27.720 or ran out of whiskey, and then they said, all right, 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:30.120 then the next ones are small, medium, large, and very large, 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:33.720 which is really boring compared to burgie bit. It is, 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:36.880 but the very large ones are kind of interesting in 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.920 that they just keep going and going. The largest one 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:44.960 ever record is the B fifteen iceberg. Yeah, broke off 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:48.520 of the Ross ice shelf down in Antarctica. Apparently it 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:53.000 was about the size of Jamaica. Yeah. I think it's 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:55.280 it's broken apart into smaller piece of sense, but I 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:59.880 think the original um area was about sixty square miles. 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:02.840 That's all. That's a big chunk of ice. Yeah, And 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:05.800 in order to be I mean, that's the upper limit, 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:08.320 like it can just be as big as they're gonna get. 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:11.800 There's no like cap or anything like that. To call 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:16.000 it super extra large. Um, but very large. You have 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:20.240 to be about twenty four stories tall and a little 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:24.120 longer than two football field six to be classified is 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:26.680 very large. Yeah, that's that's big man. If you think 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:29.600 about that, Yeah, it's huge. UM. I'm sorry, it's very 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:33.840 large or it's huge huge. Um. The other two classifications 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:36.240 that icebergs can fall in are equally boring as the 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.080 last four size names. They really could have done better 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:41.320 than this if you ask me, But they're the t 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:46.720 shape classifications are tabular and non tabular. And tabular is 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.480 basically just like a well, it looks like a table, 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:54.840 like a or a tab tablet, writing tablet, and it's back. 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:58.200 It's like tall with steep sides and a flat tops 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:01.760 like a floating plateau. Um. And those tend to come 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:04.400 off of the ice sheets down in the act Antarctic. 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:06.760 I believe, Yeah those are um. I think they have 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:08.720 to have a with five times greater than their height 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:13.040 to be tabular. And then non tabular have I think 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:18.560 five different classifications. You got blocky flat top steep signs. 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:23.879 They sound like characters they do wedged um flat with 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:26.280 a steep surface on one side and a gradual slope 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:29.240 on another. So it's like the high right haircut. Yeah, 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:32.600 the gumby the gumby the dome which is round and 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:35.320 smooth pinnacle, which means it has at least one big 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:40.520 tall spiral sticking up, and then the ones that um 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:43.679 deteriorate to where they form a big canyon. And it 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.639 looks like two different icebergs, but it's really connected. Underneath 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.120 those are dry docks, so that means they have two 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:55.080 tips sticking out, but they're connected underwater. It's like mind blowing. 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.199 It's pretty much. It was. It's pretty neat at the 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:06.520 very least. So, um, we've got northern icebergs, southern icebergs, um, 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:08.879 and there's plenty of icebergs like elsewhere, but for the 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:12.280 most part, in northern icebergs, like we said, form off 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:17.199 the western coast of Greenland, because Greenland, apparently I read this, 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:21.680 Greenland and Antarctica are the only place where, um, there's 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:27.600 ice sheets, glaciel glacial true glacial sheets, glacial sheets. Boy, 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:29.960 that's a tough one, that was. It surprised me too. 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.639 I wasn't expecting that. Uh. And in Greenland there's about 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:38.480 twenty glaciers that cap the majority of the icebergs. Yeah, 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:40.399 that was I thought pretty cool. I thought it was 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:45.960 cool too. Um. Roughly forty thousand medium too large h 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:50.600 calv from Greenland glaciers each year, is that right? And 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.800 they are about ten percent as strong as concrete, which 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:58.320 I thought sounded not super strong, but apparently that's like 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:01.800 way harder than like freeze our ice. Oh yeah, like 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:04.000 this ice is different than the ice you put in 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:07.400 your scotch, right, which is why when icebergs run into 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:11.320 one another, it tends to break it up into smaller icebergs. 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:17.000 They're very much subject to um wave motion uh storms, 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.480 other icebergs land When they run into things, like they 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:22.360 break up, and it's one of the things that has 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:27.240 a big deletrious effect on their lifespan. But it's part 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:29.880 of the it's part of the iceberg life cycle. Going 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:35.920 with the okay, good, Um, they are pretty slow but um, 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:38.480 to give you an idea, like a fast moving iceberg 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:41.640 goes about two point two miles per hour and that's 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:44.480 Hauland oh, I'm glad you bring this up because that 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:48.200 raises a very important point because we see the tip 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:53.000 of the iceberg and because we're so um anthropocentric, Um, 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.679 we assume that wind drives icebergs, you would be dead wrong. 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:59.680 And assuming that since most of the iceberg is underwater, 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:04.760 it's currents that drive icebergs, makes sense. Yeah, um. And 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:07.880 so that's how icebergs can be trapped, like in the Antarctic, 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:10.560 because they're trapped in that current or up north in 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:14.840 the Labrador Current, they kind of stay trapped up there. Um. 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:19.400 But it also makes them subject to wave motion currents 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:22.680 from other far far off storms. And I guess getting 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:26.000 hung up on things underwater, yes as well. It's another 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:29.800 good point is um, they apparently strike the bottom of 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:32.920 land a lot. Yeah, and they can like wreck the seafloor, 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:35.320 can't they. But if you think about it, like there's 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:40.520 plenty of parts of North America where glacial movement carved 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:44.639 geological features are of the land. The icebergs do the 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:47.080 same thing when they're dragged along by the current. And 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:51.920 say one's a thousand feet tall underwater and it hits 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:55.280 a patch of sea that's less than a thousand feet 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:58.800 it's gonna strike New York City and fast go to 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:01.480 Central Park and look at the there. Oh yeah, yeah, 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:04.400 they got all those little grooves cut out, that's ice. 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:11.040 That's ice ice baby. Um no, no, it's not nice. Uh. 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:14.399 The ecology this was sort of surprising to me because 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:18.320 I just figured they're just floating along. Maybe they melt 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:20.680 a little bit, what's the big whoop? But I didn't 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:24.280 really consider the fact that it's melting this glacial fresh water, 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:27.000 a lot of it at times, depending on the size 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.720 of the iceberg, all around in the sea water. And 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:32.240 that's got to have some sort of ecological effect. Yeah, 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:35.560 And I couldn't find anything anywhere that said, like there's 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:37.840 a lot of life that's adapted to living in fresh 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:40.040 water even though it's home is sea water, and they 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:42.199 live around icebergs. I couldn't find anything like that. But 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:46.399 apparently it has little effect on these animals because icebergs 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:51.000 are basically like floating time released nutrient capsules. Yeah, it's 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:53.720 like teeming with life around it. So they must love it, 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:55.800 these little krill and plankton. It's like a lot of 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:59.840 small stuff generally, Well, what there's there's a there's a 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:05.600 definite Um, what's that chain called food chain that iceberg support. Um. 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:09.240 They bring a lot of iron rich nutrients from the 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:12.600 land as a gift to the sea, and as they melt, 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:17.960 they slowly release this stuff. This supports um algae, right, 0:22:18.400 --> 0:22:20.560 So there's a lot of algae that that grows on 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:23.320 their krill. These little tiny shrimp like things eat the 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:26.440 algae um, and then all these other animals eat the krill, 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:28.920 and then the birds prey on the other fish that 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:31.720 are eating the krill. So this whole food chain develops 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:35.280 around this iceberg. It's pretty cool. But even even something 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:37.720 that I think they've only recently begun to figure out 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:41.560 is that icebergs are there a sign of climate chains, 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:43.639 Like everybody's worried about all the icebergs melting in the 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:47.359 sea levels rising, and for good reason. But they're also 0:22:47.440 --> 0:22:51.840 figuring out that they also aid in carbon sequestration in 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:55.000 the ocean. That makes sense. So this algae and all 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:58.080 this stuff is they're eating this iron. There's a transfer 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:02.720 of carbon from the land to these uh that this 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:05.960 life that eventually will die fall down to the bottom 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:08.640 of the sea and keep the carbon trapped with it, 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:12.119 So algae that wouldn't be there um is soaking up 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:15.040 carbon and then being eaten and passed along in this 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:18.240 undersea food chain, and they found that, Um, the carbon 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:22.480 absorption around in iceberg is twice what it is elsewhere 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:25.199 because this algae wouldn't be there if it weren't for 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:28.640 the iceberg. So there it's soaking up the CEO too. 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:32.960