SYDNEY - MORE than 100, and possibly hundreds, of Antarctic icebergs are floating towards New Zealand in a rare event which has prompted a shipping warning, officials said on Monday.

An Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist said the ice chunks, spotted by satellite photography, had passed the Auckland Islands and were heading towards the main South Island, about 450 kilometres northeast.

Scientist Neal Young said more than 100 icebergs - some measuring more than 200 metres across - were seen in just one cluster, indicating there could be hundreds more. He said they were the remains of a massive ice floe which split from the Antarctic as sea and air temperatures rise due to global warming.

‘All of these have come from a larger one that was probably 30 square kilometres in size when it left Antarctica,’ Mr Young told AFP. ‘It’s done a long circuit around Antarctica and now the bigger parts of it are breaking up and producing smaller ones.’

He said large numbers of icebergs had not floated this close to New Zealand since 2006, when a number came within 25 kilometres of the coastline - the first such sighting since 1931. ‘They’re following the same tracks now up towards New Zealand. Whether they make it up to the South Island or not is difficult to tell,’ Mr Young said.

New Zealand has already issued coastal navigation warnings for the area in the Southern Ocean where the icebergs have been seen. ‘It’s really just a general warning for shipping in that area to be on the alert for icebergs,’ said Maritime New Zealand spokesman Ross Henderson. — AFP

SIXTEEN Chinese scientists will start an exploratory mission of the Mekong River next week, team leader Tao Baoxiang said.

Huo Mingyuan, chief scientist said the 20-day study aims to learn about the state of the river’s current ecosystem, how it evolved, and the extent of its impact.

The mission also aims to understand its biodiversity and the state of its water resources, Huo said.

The team includes experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Institute of Hydrobiology, and Kunming Institute of Botany.

The team’s tour will start from Xishuangbanna in southwest China’s Yunnan Province and move down the river, which is called Lancang River in China.

Sun Jiulin of Chinese Academy of Engineering said the mission was significant for China’s cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asia Nations in politics, economy and culture.

(Xinhua)

TESSA BICKFORD / AFP/Getty Images

SYDNEY: A large iceberg was spotted off an island about halfway between Antarctica and Australia, a rare sight in waters so far north, Australian scientists said yesterday. It could be headed for New Zealand.

Australian Antarctic Division researchers working on Macquarie Island, about 1,500 km southeast of Tasmania, first saw the iceberg last Thursday about 8 km off the northwest coast of the island.

“I’ve never seen anything like it - we looked out to the horizon and just saw this huge floating island of ice,” said fur seal biologist Dean Miller.

The iceberg, about 50 meters high and 500 meters long, is probably part of one of several larger icebergs that broke off Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf between 2000 and 2002, Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young said.

Several icebergs have been drifting slowly northward with the coean current toward the island over the past year, but it is uncommon for them to move so far into warmer northern waters, he said.

The scientists believe the iceberg will break up and melt rapidly as it continues its journey north. Before it melts, however, it could present a danger to ships navigating the region, Young said.

In 2000, several massive icebergs broke off from Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf and the Ronne Ice Shelf. The first iceberg was about 300 km long and 37 km wide. Those icebergs are now drifting away from Antarctica.

Icebergs are formed as the ice shelf develops. Snow falls on the ice sheet and forms more ice, which flows to the edges onto the floating ice shelves. Eventually, pieces around the edge break off.

AP-AFP