Question

In 1986, a gargantuan iceberg broke away from the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. It was approximately a rectangle 165 km long, 45.0 km wide, and 250 m thick.

(a) What is the mass of this iceberg in kg, given that the density of ice is 917 kg/m³?

?kg

(b) How much heat transfer (in joules) is needed to melt it?

?J

(c) How many years would it take sunlight alone to melt ice this thick, if the ice absorbs an average of 100 W/m², 11.00 h per day?

?yr

Answer 1