An immense iceberg and an island have offered an answer to the age-old riddle – what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?
NASA’s Earth Observatory recorded the encounter from space in September when the iceberg D30-A, “nearly the size of Rhode Island” or 72km long by 20km wide, collided with Clarence Island off the Antarctic coast.
The footage shows the iceberg approaching the island’s south-east coast, before crashing into it and then moving around before drifting north.
“It didn’t ‘stick’ quite likely because the eastern side of Clarence Island has a pretty sheer drop-off with deep enough water to allow the berg to sail right through,” glaciologist Christopher Shuman said.
Clarence Island is a regular breeding ground for 200,000 chinstrap penguins – luckily, they weren’t at home when the iceberg hit.
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“If this had happened in December when they were breeding and the adults were trading off incubation daily, it might have been quite serious since even a few days of blocked access to the colony might mean a failed breeding year,” ecologist Heather Lynch said.
NASA said the iceberg was likely to continue drifting east past the Horn of South America, before the currents pushed it north into the warmer waters of the Atlantic, where it would melt.
