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Name       
GLY-2038 –Environmental Geoscience

Discussion: Water Resources -- Icebergs

More than two-thirds of the Earth’s fresh water is contained in the ice sheets and glaciers. The purpose of this
investigation is to examine glaciers in detail and to develop ideas as to how they might serve as a future water
supply for the Earth’s increasing population and diminishing water supply. To visualize the scale of icebergs, go to
the U.S. Coast Guard webpage to answer the first two questions:
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=iipWhatIsTheLargestIcebergEverRecorded

(1) What was the height above the water surface of the tallest iceberg ever observed in the North Atlantic?
 550_ft ( 167.64_m)

(2) If 7/8 of an iceberg lies below the surface what was the total height of the above iceberg, including the part that
floated beneath the surface?  35,200_ft (
10728.96_m)

Several mega-icebergs have been breaking off the Antarctic Ross Ice Shelf in recent years. Ice shelves, which
are floating, are an unstable part of the Antarctic continent. A publication containing a map showing the location of
the Ross Ice Shelf is at: http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/quickfacts/iceshelves.html. Another one can be found at:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2005/3055/.

One of the largest Antarctic icebergs to break off from the Ross Ice Shelf was named B15. It was first observed in
March of 2000. It later broke into several large pieces, designated B-15A, B-15B, etc.

Go to the British ATSR satellite project webpage to see images and information for answering the questions below
about B-15: http://www.atsr.rl.ac.uk/news/details/09052000/01/index.shtml

[NOTE: a later (Jan. 2003) image of one of the larger pieces of this iceberg (B-15A), showing its relation to the US
McMurdo Sound base, and the two Antarctic volcanoes, Mt. Erebus and Mt. Terror, is at the National Snow and
Ice Data Center: http://nsidc.org/data/iceshelves_images/ross_west.html ]

(3) What was the length and width of B15 (in km)?  300_km x  40__km

(4) Knowing the length and width of the B-15 iceberg, and using the total height that you calculated for the Arctic
iceberg above, calculate how much fresh water is contained in the largest piece, in cubic meters. Show your
calculation along with the answer:  128,400     
__m3
Calculation: ____ 10.7*40*300

(5) The average human requires about 1700 cubic meters of fresh water per year. How many people could obtain
a lifetime’s supply (70 yr) of freshwater from this iceberg? Show your calculation along with the answer:
 75.5__persons
Calculation: ____ 128,400/1700

(6) Assuming you could bottle all of the water in that iceberg and sell it as Pure Antarctic Iceberg Water at $1 for a
liter bottle, what would the water be worth? Show your calculation along with the answer:

128400000__dollars
Calculation: ____ 128400*1000

(7) How does this amount compare with the current U.S. national debt (look it up)?
 23.3 trillions_X
U.S. debt
Calculation: ____ ?
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(8) How does this amount compare with the current U.S. Gross Domestic Product (look it up)?
 20.4 trillion_X
U.S. GDP
Calculation: ____ ?

Names of group members: __