Aug 09, 2011

Japan tsunami tore off icebergs from Antarctica

By Michael Winter, USA TODAY
Updated 57m ago

The tsunami generated by the March earthquake off northern Japan sliced off nearly 50 square miles of icebergs from Antarctica, NASA scientists are reporting. It's the first time such an occurrence has been directly seen.

Swells generated by the March 11 Tohoku earthquake had traveled 8,000 miles and were probably only about a foot high when they reached the the Sulzberger ice shelf about 18 hours later, NASA says. But they produced enough force to calve off icebergs from the 260-foot-thick shelf, which had not shed ice in 46 years. The total amount of ice was nearly twice the size of Manhattan.

Satellite images allowed the scientists to watch the event in almost real time. See it for yourself @
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogal ... =105110261

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... tarctica/1