Aspects of Iceberg Deterioration and Drift

Abstract

During her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, the ocean liner RMS Titanic struck an iceberg off the Newfoundland Banks and sank on April 15, 1912. Of the 2228 passengers and crew on board, only 705 survived. This tragedy generated a public outcry that subsequently provoked government action. Representatives of the world’s various maritime powers signed a convention in 1914 to inaugurate an international derelict-destruction, ice observation, and ice patrol service. Today, the International Ice Patrol (IIP) is comprised of 17 member national organizations (including Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America). Its mission is “to monitor the extent of the iceberg danger near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and provide limits of all known ice to the maritime community”. In addition to participation in the IIP, several countries have their own independent organizations that keep track of individual iceberg positions, trajectories, size and melt decay in Northern waters. Typically, this is accomplished through the use of satellites (RADARSAT), aerial reconnaissance making use of Side-Looking Airborne Radar (SLAR) and Forward-Looking Airborne Radar (FLAR), as well as observations from commercial shipping