Video Captures Massive Iceberg Floating Off Newfoundland
A viral video has captured a breathtaking, massive iceberg floating off the coast of the Canadian island of Newfoundland. Although iceberg sightings in the area are not uncommon in the summer, climate change is threatening the future of these freshwater ice marvels.
The area where iceberg sightings are most common is known as "Iceberg Alley," the stretch of the North Atlantic Ocean that curves along the eastern coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. Iceberg Alley is also where the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in 1912. According to the tourism website for Newfoundland and Labrador, about 90 percent of the area's icebergs break off from the glaciers of western Greenland before migrating south, while the rest come from Canada's Arctic.
In the video, which surfaced on Twitter this week, the immense iceberg can be seen drifting just offshore, dwarfing the houses seen in the foreground. More impressive, is that approximately 90 percent of icebergs mass are below the surface of the ocean.
???????? A giant iceberg has sailed to the Canadian island of Newfoundland pic.twitter.com/lPJ0xSCvDO
— Spriter Team (@SpriterTeam) August 1, 2023
This summer has seen an uptick in iceberg sightings after three light seasons. However, as National Geographic points out, citing data from a July 21 U.S. Coast Guard and International Ice Patrol Iceberg Outlook report, the numbers are still below average when compared to the last decade.
Likewise, a 2019 study from the U.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that Greenland's glaciers are melting four times faster than previously believed due to climate change. As the planet continues to heat up at an accelerated rate, the future migration of icebergs to Newfoundland could be in jeopardy.
The ice that makes up icebergs can be potentially tens of thousands of years old, as glaciers are formed when layers upon layers of snow accumulate and eventually compress into ice. As such, a single iceberg can contain ice from several different periods of time in history. In other words, once they're gone, they're gone forever.