An ice tongue is formed
where a valley glacier moves quickly out from the land and over
water. The Drygalski Ice Tongue is in the northern
part of McMurdo Sound about 150 miles (240 kilometres) from
Ross Island. Prior to 2005 it stretched about 43 miles (70 kilometres)
out to sea.
In March 2005-2006 the giant
120km long iceberg known as B15A collided with the end of the
ice tongue breaking off two large (70 square km) pieces. A year
later in march 2006 another giant iceberg known as C16 broke
another piece off of around 100 square km in size - picture
below.
The ice tongue was measured from
1988 to 2002 as having advanced from the shore (with erosion
of ice bergs at the exposed end) by 10km, so it shouldn't take
too long (byglacier standards) for it to make up the lost ice
once again.
Drygalski Ice tongue, terminal portion
being broken off by ice-berg C16
Picture courtesy of Mike Usher
- Mike went on a Ross Sea expedition on board the Kapitan Khlebnikov
in 2005.
You can purchase a selection of Mike's pictures
here
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