Icebergs in the Ross Sea, Antarctica
While the B-15A iceberg remains stuck in the McMurdo Sound, blocking trapped sea ice from floating away to melt in the warmer summer waters of the Ross Sea, the B-15J iceberg is slowly moving toward the Ross Ice Shelf and Ross Island. This set of true-color Terra MODIS images shows the roundish iceberg slowly rotating counter-clockwise as it moves west. The smaller, oblong iceberg that B-15J is approaching is the C-16 iceberg. The long thin iceberg between C-16 and the gargantuan B-15A is B-15K; all of the B-15 icebergs spawned from the same calving in 2002. B-15A and its sister icebergs have been blocking up ice in McMurdo Sound since 2004, and until recently, B-15A was on a collision-course with the Drygalski Ice Tongue (pointing northeast from the Ross Ice Shelf). The top image is from February 25, 2005, while the rollover image is from February 14, 2005.