A giant iceberg has floated towards the shore of a Canadian island, Newfoundland, leaving the netizens in shock, with a one-minute clip shared by a user named @SpriterTeam on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, going viral showing the massive iceberg approaching the Canadian mainland.
The video, which was posted online on Tuesday, has received more than 9.3 million views and over 1.16 lakh likes. Other users have flooded the social media platform by sharing the video of the huge iceberg drifting to the shore.
Some people were in awe of the bizarre incident while some were distraught over climate change. A user commented on X, “Welcome to the Anthropocene”, while another commented, “Amy Adams has been dispatched to communicate with it.”
It is said that these events are frequently occurring due to drastic changes in the climate causing a threat to the Earth’s ice caps.
According to the news reports, the Canadian island of Newfoundland is known as the ‘Iceberg Alley’, huge icebergs floating near the shore due to the ocean currents. However, it is almost improbable for Alley, as it is massive in size, to have the iceberg drift, which shocked the people. The Alley is located in a stream of water near the eastern province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Around 90% of the icebergs in the world come from the old areas in the glaciers of Greenland and the rest are from Canada’s Arctic. They break away from the larger blocks of ice due to rising temperatures, though the large blocks of ice last only for a few months.
A 2019 study published in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences stated that the glaciers in Greenland are melting four times faster than their previous rate, pointing to the need to be concerned about the changing climate and to restore this natural wonder. In July 2023, the US Coast Guard and International Ice Patrol, a body established after the Titanic sank in 1912, estimated 2,065 icebergs were floating in open water to the north of the Labrador region.
An iceberg is a large floating block of ice, made up of a stockpile of soil and snow collected over thousands of years, detached from a glacier, and floats in the ocean as they melt with time. Most icebergs melt within a year.
