Icebergs measured in Manhattans: Official

Antarctic tsunami event spawns new standard

It's a well-known fact that volumes of water are described in terms of Olympic-sized swimming pools, while running H₂O is quantified in elephants per second, but have you ever wondered just what is the official standard for large bodies of ice?

Well wonder no more, because ScienceDaily has the answer. According to this report on Antarctic icebergs created by the Tohoku Tsunami earlier this year, waves from the Pacific earthquake swept 8,000 miles to the Sulzberger Ice Shelf and dislodged chunks of ice "that together equalled about two times the surface area of Manhattan".

The report elaborates that satellite images revealed "two moderate-sized icebergs – with more, smaller bergs in their wake".

It adds: "The largest iceberg was about four by six miles [6.4 x 9.6km] in surface area – itself about equal to the surface area of one Manhattan. All the ice surface together about equaled two Manhattans."

So there you have it. Of course, we could protest and demand ScienceDaily deploy the traditional MilliWales to measure the bergs' surface, but we do like the idea of Manhattans and ice. ®