00:00You're lazing around on the deck of the ship when you see something whitish-gray covering
00:05the horizon.
00:06Like in a horror movie or your worst nightmare, this weird fog is nearing the vessel.
00:11It's infinite, you can't see where it starts or where it ends.
00:15Soon it makes the ship look like a grain of sand in a vast desert.
00:19That's when the realization hits – it's an iceberg, and your ship is likely going
00:24to repeat the Titanic's fate.
00:27All this is a very likely scenario since the world's biggest iceberg, A23A, is on the
00:33move again after months of spinning in a huge water vortex.
00:37And it's actually the second time in just a couple of years that this massive chunk
00:42of ice has broken free.
00:44The first time was in 2023, when the berg went wandering around after being stuck on
00:49the seafloor for a staggering 37 years.
00:52The thing is huge, about three times the size of New York City.
00:56It also weighs nearly a trillion tons.
00:59The giant chunk of ice first broke off from Antarctica's Filsner Ice Shelf back in 1986,
01:05but instead of floating away, it got grounded on the seafloor just a few miles from where
01:09it started.
01:11Because of that, it melted much more slowly than most icebergs.
01:14In December 2023, A23A finally broke free and started to drift away from Antarctica.
01:22But it didn't get far before getting stuck again.
01:25This time near the South Orkney Islands.
01:27It got trapped in something called a Taylor Column.
01:30That's a huge spinning water current that forms when ocean currents swirl around an
01:35underwater mountain.
01:36At one point, A23A was rotating around 15 degrees counterclockwise every day.
01:43Luckily, as of December 2024, the iceberg escaped the Taylor Column and is now slowly
01:49moving again.
01:51Scientists are super curious to see if it'll follow the same path as other giant icebergs
01:56that have broken off from Antarctica, or if it'll find its own unique way.
02:01Such enormous icebergs, such as A23A, release nutrients into the water as they melt.
02:07And it can actually create hot spots of life in parts of the ocean that are usually pretty
02:12empty.
02:13But there's still a lot we don't understand about how the size, shape, or origin of the
02:18iceberg might affect that process.
02:21So to figure it out, scientists have been collecting water samples from the areas A23A
02:26is expected to pass through, and they'll keep collecting samples as it drifts along.
02:31Hopefully, it'll give us a better idea of how massive icebergs like this one influence
02:36the ocean around them.
02:38By the way, the glacier our monster of an iceberg was once part of could be very, very
02:43old.
02:44Literally ancient.
02:46In Antarctica, the oldest glacier ice might be close to 1 million years old.
02:51Over in Greenland, the oldest glacier ice is more than 100,000 years old.
02:56And in Alaska, the oldest glacier ice ever recovered, found in a basin between Mount
03:00Bona and Mount Churchill, is only about 30,000 years old.
03:05A mere child.
03:06At the same time, in a typical Alaskan Valley glacier, it only takes about 100 years for
03:12newly formed ice to travel through the entire length of the glacier.
03:15For something like Bering Glacier, which is Alaska's largest and stretches over 140
03:20miles, the ice can move through the whole thing in less than 400 years.
03:25And that's a lot of movement for such a massive glacier.
03:29Now let's move on to Iceberg Alley, a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean that runs from the Arctic
03:34to Newfoundland.
03:35If you want to see as many icebergs as you can, that's the place to be.
03:40Tens of icebergs float through this place every year.
03:43Most of them come from Greenland.
03:45In spring and summer, big chunks of glaciers break off and get carried by north-south currents
03:50through Baffin Bay into the Labrador Sea, where they eventually melt.
03:55Some icebergs also come from Canada's shoreline, traveling through the Davis Strait and into
04:00the Labrador Sea before drifting along Newfoundland's eastern and western coasts.
04:05These massive ice chunks are really old too, about 10,000 years.
04:10Every year, about 400 to 800 medium and large icebergs pass through Iceberg Alley.
04:16How fast they drift depends on their size, shape, currents, waves, and wind, but the
04:21average speed is less than a half mile per hour.
04:26There are 6 types of icebergs that make their way through Iceberg Alley.
04:30Tabular icebergs are flat slabs of ice, much wider than they are tall.
04:35Steady icebergs have steep sides and sharp angles, like cut-off pyramids.
04:40Wedged icebergs have one steep side and one sloping side.
04:44Dome icebergs have a rounded top.
04:46Pinnacle icebergs have one or more steep peaks sticking up.
04:50And dry-dock icebergs are U-shaped, with a hollowed-out section.
04:54They all look incredible.
04:56Comment below which is your favorite type!
05:00Anyway, as these icebergs drift south, the warmer water speeds up their melting, making
05:05them pretty unpredictable, and sometimes dangerous.
05:09Nowadays, satellites help track medium and large icebergs to prevent accidents, but smaller
05:14icebergs can still be risky for small boats.
05:17One iceberg made headlines in 2018 when it got unusually close to the Newfoundland village
05:23of Fairyland.
05:24Pictures of the giant iceberg towering over the village's houses went viral.
05:29It got stuck in a 330-foot-deep water, which turned out to be too shallow for its massive
05:34size.
05:35And now I'll take you on an unusual journey to the past to witness the birth of something
05:40beautiful and equally disastrous.
05:43Its very existence led to one of the greatest tragedies in history.
05:47Watch.
05:48An enormous chunk of ice is breaking off a glacier in southwest Greenland.
05:52It's made of snow that fell over 100,000 years ago, when mammoths were still wandering around
05:58the planet.
05:59The enormous iceberg starts its long journey.
06:02It stretches more than 1,700 feet in length and weighs 75 million tons.
06:08Despite its size, it's pretty peaceful, and stays far away from ships and the busy
06:12transport routes near where it was born.
06:15But then, it starts floating south, much farther than most icebergs ever get.
06:21Usually, icebergs like this melt way before they reach such warm waters.
06:26Out of the 15,000 to 30,000 icebergs that drift away from Greenland's glaciers every
06:31year, only about 1% make it all the way to the Atlantic.
06:36So the fact that this iceberg keeps going and reaches over 5,000 miles south of the
06:41Arctic Circle by April makes it truly unique.
06:45Even after months of melting, this block of ice is still incredibly massive.
06:50It weighs around 1.5 million tons, which is almost twice as much as the Golden Gate
06:55Bridge.
06:56Above the water, its visible parts tower more than 100 feet high.
07:01But like most icebergs, the majority of it, about 90%, is hidden below the surface.
07:07The iceberg's story takes a tragic turn on April 14, 1912, when guess what?
07:14Yep, it comes across the ocean liner Titanic.
07:18The ship is about 370 miles from Newfoundland in the North Atlantic Ocean when the iceberg
07:23seems to appear out of nowhere.
07:25The crew doesn't spot it until just minutes before the crash.
07:29Why don't they see it sooner?
07:31That's a good question.
07:33Most people imagine icebergs as tall, bright, white chunks of ice, maybe even covered with
07:38snow.
07:39But in reality, icebergs come in all sorts of colors.
07:43Some are striped, patterned, or even have candy-like swirls.
07:47And they can also be black.
07:49There are two ways an iceberg can turn black.
07:52When the ice is extremely pure, with no bubbles or cracks, then it absorbs all the light instead
07:57of reflecting it, making it look black.
08:00Or a volcanic eruption can cover a glacier in ash.
08:04If ice from that glacier breaks off, it can have a dark or black color.
08:10Still aren't sure why the Titanic's iceberg looked dark.
08:13Or even if it really did.
08:15But one sailor who was on the lookout in the crow's nest said it seemed black.
08:20Another described it as gray or dark gray.
08:24One theory is this iceberg could've been a black bird, which forms when the top part
08:28melts, causing the iceberg to roll over.
08:31If the bottom is smooth enough to absorb light, it looks dark.
08:35But even if the iceberg wasn't truly black, night time could've made it much harder
08:40to spot.
08:42Icebergs don't reflect much light, especially if they're jagged or vertical.
08:46They end up blending into the dark, shimmering ocean.
08:50Without radar, icebergs at night are incredibly hard to see.
08:54Which is probably why the Titanic's crew didn't notice it in time.
09:03That's it for today!
09:04But – hey!
09:05If you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends!
09:09Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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