Christchurch Earthquake Causes Massive Iceberg Break

Minutes after the devastating 6.3 earthquake rocked Christchurch, NZ, a 30 million ton iceberg fell, New Zealand tourism officials reported Wednesday.

The 30-40 ton iceberg ripped down the side of Tasman Glacier at Aoraki Mount Cook National Park.  A local tourism official stated that a piercing noise which sounded like a rifle shot accompanied the fantastic sight.

Denis Callesen, Aoraki Mount Cook Alpine Village tourism manager, commented that locals had been expecting a major iceberg to drop from the glacier for the past month, but the “curve ball” was that the event was caused by an earthquake.

“The earthquake that we felt here was a swaying motion for about a minute, then it stopped and then it swayed for about another minute,” he relayed to Associate Foreign Press.

“Within about a minute of that happening, the staff at the lake heard from five kilometers away (from the glacier) a sound that sounded like a rifle shot and then over the next two minutes all the events started to unfold.

“I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the earthquake was the trigger.”

New Zealand’s Department of Conservation confirmed that a “large chunk” of the glacier fell into the lake but was unable to confirm the shearing was caused by the earthquake. “You could argue whether the earthquake precipitated it or not , the fact is that the terminal face was about due to carve anyway,” area manager Richard McNamara told AFP.

He commented that it wasn’t unusual to see gigantic icebergs hit the lake. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake which preceded the one on Tuesday had not produced a similar event at Mt Cook, he said.

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Posted by Elisha Templeton on Feb 23 2011. Filed under Featured News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.