Due to a faulty hyperlink, this section must be accessed in the following way:

• Dinner and Dance - Iceberg>Iceberg Dead Ahead


• Go to the Astern/Ahead navigation (top right hand corner) and click 'Astern'

Overview
This section describes the life on an iceberg in the North Atlantic, and the process of melting and calving as it drifts south towards the shipping lanes.

After the British and American enquiries following the Titanic disaster, North Atlantic shipping lanes were moved further south. In 1913, the American and British governments established the International Ice Patrol (IIP). This service monitors and warns shipping about icebergs in the North Atlantic. During the ice season, long-range patrol aircraft scour thousands of square miles of ocean looking for icebergs that could be a danger to ships.

Weather conditions and ocean currents around the Newfoundland Grand Banks affect iceberg drift. The IIP asks ships to report any ice they see, and also to send weather reports and take sea surface temperature readings. All this information feeds into a sophisticated computer programme designed to predict the movement of icebergs.

Today, Coast Guard cutters move icebergs out of the shipping lanes. Every year on April 15, the International Ice Patrol hold a memorial service for the Titanic, and an aircraft drops wreaths of flowers into the water.

Activities for the Classroom

• Find out about the work of the International Ice Patrol


• The North American and Canadian Ice services now produce a regularly updated iceberg chart. Find out about this at http://www.uscg-iip.org/pdf/NAIS_CHART.pdf


• Invent, and make a co-ordinates game in which ships travelling from Southampton to New York steer a course to avoid icebergs


• Research the effect of melting ice on sea levels. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100428142258.htm


• Can we drink iceberg water? How do we know?


• Does ice melt at different rates in salt and fresh water? Design an experiment to find out using ice cubes. Think of other ways ice cubes might help us find out more about icebergs.


• Half fill two identical plastic bottles with water. There must be exactly the same amount of water in each. Mark the level of water on the outside of each bottle. Now put one of the bottles in the freezer overnight. Compare the water levels next day. What has happened and why?


• Newspapers at the time said the iceberg Titanic struck was about as tall as St Paul's Cathedral. Research eyewitness accounts of the iceberg, and think of other helpful comparisons to give an idea of its size and mass


• The biggest icebergs are in the Antarctic. Find out just how big these can be

In the film Titanic II, melting at the Greenland Ice Cap creates an iceberg the size of Manhattan. As this falls into the sea, it creates a Tsunami. Although this is pure science fiction, children could

• Research global warming at the poles


• Research the effect of melting ice in the Atlantic. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100428142258.htm

References

International Ice Patrol (schools' pages)
http://www.uscg-iip.org/Students/Default.htm

Webquest's Iceberg Ahead!
http://express.howstuffworks.com/wq-iceberg.htm