Icebergs in Ross Sea
Icebergs B-15 and C-19 calved from Ross Ice shelf respectively in year 2000 and 2002. Both icebergs, whose length exceed 100 Km, had been floating for some years in McMurdo sound thus disrupting the normal ocean circulation that clears the area of seasonal ice during the first months of austral summer.
This situation created trouble for ships trying to bring in supplies to McMurdo research station on Ross Island and seriously endangered the local population of Adelie Penguins by considerably extending the distance they have to travel for finding nourishment for their chicks in the open sea. In year 2003 Iceberg C-19 moved northward very rapidly, passed Cape Adana and is now floating in the open Sea north of Victoria land and Balleny Islands. B-15 iceberg stationed in the Ross Sea up to the end of year 2005 and then followed the northern route of C-19. In April 2005 iceberg B-15 collided with Drygalski Ice Tongue, a permanent feature of Ross Sea landscape, breaking off its tip.
The event was documented by a sequence of Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite images in the darkness of Antarctic autumn.
Balleny islands
The Balleny Islands are a chain of three volcanic islands, part of New Zealand territory (under the Antarctic treaty), which were firstly discovered in 1839; they are mostly glaciated and they have never been inhabited. In spite of their harsh environment , the area appears to be a nursery both on land and in the sea.
Evidence indicates that the waters are essential habitat for both juvenile toothfish and krill. As the only islands at that latitude for thousands of kilometres in either direction, the 160-kilometre chain of islands provides resting and breeding habitat for a number of seabird and seal species.
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image (937 KB) MODIS image of Antarctic Sea at
the beginning of springtime (October) in 2006. C19 iceberg is veiled by
cloud. Balleny Island (bottom right corner) are still “trapped” in the glaciated
sea; The high mountain peaks generate gravity waves in the clouds flowing
above the islands 
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image (184 KB), C-19 (top), B-15a (bottom left)
and Balleny Islands (bottom right) in late summer 2007
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image (1030 KB),Image of C-19 iceberg in May
2007; Balleny
islands are located in the bottom, barely illuminated by the grazing sun
rays in the long Antarctic sunset
islands are located in the bottom, barely illuminated by the grazing sun
rays in the long Antarctic sunset
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