Manhattan-sized Iceberg Could Threaten Shipping Lanes

Shipping lines could be threatened by an iceberg the size of Manhattan, researchers warn.

The iceberg broke off of the the Antarctic glacier known as Pine Island Glacier in July, and is now being tracked by a team led by the University of Sheffield in an effort to prevent it from becoming a hazard to those at sea.

"Its current movement does not raise environmental issues, however a previous giant iceberg from this location eventually entered the South Atlantic and if this happens it could potentially pose a hazard to ships," Grant Bigg of the school's geography department said in a statement.

The iceberg's fate and, by extension, its effects are largely dictated by where it ends up, Bigg explains.

"If the iceberg stays around the Antarctic coast, it will melt slowly and will eventually add a lot of freshwater that stays in the coastal current, altering the density and affecting the speed of the current," he said. "Similarly, if it moves north it will melt faster but could alter the overturning rates of the current as it may create a cap of freshwater above the denser seawater."

Though not enough to cause much of an impact on its own, Bigg warns this could change if events like these started piling up.

"If these events become more common, there will be a build-up of freshwater which could have lasting effects."

Funded by the National Environment Research Council (NERC), the six-month project is designed to also test a method that could one day be used by ice hazard warning services.

The Pine Island Glacier is the fastest shrinking glacier on the planet, according to the David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey.

"It's losing more ice than any other glacier on the planet, and it's contributing to sea level rise faster than any other glacier on the planet," he told the BBC back when the iceberg first broke off. "That makes it worthy of study."