Largest Iceberg Seen in a Century Now Headed for Australia
A massive iceberg twice the size of Manhattan is headed for Australia's southwestern coast, threatening shipping lanes in the Pacific. The "superberg," called B17B, is roughly 1,000 miles off the coast of Australia and headed for warmer waters, where it will likely break up into many small pieces. The 'berg broke off the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica in 2000, and has been floating in the cold waters of the Pacific until recently, when ocean currents and weather conditions nudged it north. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology issued a shipping alert Friday after the iceberg was seen off the country's southwestern coast. Several other icebergs have been spotted near New Zealand in recent weeks, but none was as big as B17B, which 87 square miles in area -- is about double the size of Sydney Harbor. Australian media quoted a glaciologist who said if the iceberg crashed into the continental shelf, it would...