Icebergs

Whenever glaciers or ice sheets reach the sea, the movement of the ice eventually pushes the end of the sheet into water which is deeper than the thickness of the glacier ice. Portions of the end of the glacier break off and form floating masses known as icebergs or bergs. Icebergs are often of enormous size and may reach a height of 90 to 150 m (about 300 to 500 ft) above the surface of the sea. Yet about 90 percent of the mass of an iceberg is beneath the surface . Icebergs are common in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions and are often carried into lower latitudes by sea currents, particularly in the North Atlantic Ocean. North Atlantic icebergs all come from the Great Greenland ice sheet and have been observed as far as 3200 km (about 2000 mi) from their origin. After the sinking (1912) of the steamship Titanic, 16 nations instituted an iceberg patrol of the North Atlantic, which included the U.S. Coast Guard. Now known as the International Ice patrol , it tracks icebergs and reports their location to ships.

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