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Concept information

Preferred term

iceberg  

Type

  • http://www.irandoc.ac.ir/onto/irandoc-meta/Concept

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Definitions

  • The greater part of an iceberg's mass (4/5 to 8/9) is below sea level, which makes them dangerous to shipping in high and mid-latitude regions of the ocean. The top of an ice berg usually protrudes more than 5 m above water-level and typically extends from tens of meters to many tens of kilometres across. Icebergs may be described as tabular, dome-shaped, sloping, pinnacled, dry-docked, blocky, weathered or glacier bergs in addition to having a size qualifier. Icebergs are not sea ice, when they melt they add fresh water to the ocean. The unmodified term iceberg usually refers to the irregular masses of ice formed by the calving of glaciers along an orographically rough coast, whereas tabular icebergs and ice islands are calved from an ice shelf, while bergs formed from sea ice are called floebergs. In decreasing size, they are classified as: ice island (few thousand square meters to 500 km^2 in area); tabular iceberg; iceberg; bergy bit (less than 5 m above sea level, between 1 and 200 m^2 in area); and growler (less than 1 m above sea level, about 20 m^2 in area). Alaskan icebergs rarely exceed 500 feet in maximum dimension. Antarctic icebergs originate from the ice mass of the Antarctic continent that has accumulated over many thousands of years.

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URI

http://www.irandoc.acir/onto/irandoc/SWEETT17852

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