When you think of icebergs, what comes to mind?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps it\u2019s the iceberg that brought down the Titanic<\/em> off Newfoundland in 1912.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or maybe it\u2019s A-23A, the \u201cmegaberg\u201d that broke off an Antarctic ice shelf in 1986 and became a media sensation as it traveled 1,500 miles across southern oceans for 40 years. This month, Iceberg A-23A finally disintegrated in warmer South Atlantic waters, NASA reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As ocean waters have warmed under climate change, scientists have recorded increased ice-melting in both polar regions, including \u201ccalving\u201d of glaciers and ice shelves that launch icebergs on their ocean journeys. Floating icebergs can disrupt oceanic environments and wreak havoc on shipping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat is interesting to me is that something as common as melting, floating ice can have unexpected and potentially large consequences,\u201d says Clark Physics<\/a> Professor Arshad Kudrolli<\/a>, co-author of a recent scientific study that describes the momentum behind floating icebergs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Editors at Physics Magazine<\/em> featured<\/a> the study \u2014 published<\/a> recently in the peer-reviewed journal\u00a0Physics Review Fluids \u2014 <\/em>by co-principal investigators Kudrolli and the University of Paris Cit\u00e9\u2019s Michael Berhanu. Their co-authors included Clark physics Ph.D. student Amit Dawadi and the University of Paris Cit\u00e9\u2019s <\/em>J\u00e9r\u00f4me Jovet and Martin Chaigne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese findings suggest that melting-driven propulsion may be relevant to the motion of icebergs in sufficiently warm oceanic environments.\u201d<\/p>\u2014 \u201cSelf-propulsion of floating ice blocks caused by melting in water,\u201d physical review fluids <\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Replicating the physics of iceberg movement, their experiment revealed that, in addition to being pushed by wind, ocean currents, and surface waves, the chilled blocks can be propelled by their own melting in warmer water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most icebergs are found in 32- to 41-degree Fahrenheit seawater, but the experiment used 50- to 86-degree Fahrenheit water, because icebergs can travel thousands of kilometers and warmer waters, according to the scientists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIcebergs have been reported drifting in warmer waters near Newfoundland \u2026 in spring, where the ocean temperature can reach 10 degrees Celsius,\u201d or 50 degrees Fahrenheit, they explain. \u201cThese findings suggest that melting-driven propulsion may be relevant to the motion of icebergs in sufficiently warm oceanic environments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oceanic icebergs typically are around 328 feet \u2014 just over the size of a football field \u2014 irregularly shaped, and \u201ccomposed of frozen freshwater, formed by the calving of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland,\u201d according to the scientists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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