The Unbearable Lightness of Being String...(part 2)

Sinking of the Titanic...the painting, not the movie

Icebergs, in spite their usefulness in chilling one’s drink(s), pose some difficult problems in Gordon’s String Theory. Unlike continents, which drift apart or along or whatever with relative predictability due to being loosely tied together, icebergs careen hither and yon with such unpredictability that they have to be individually monitored or we risk utter chaos on the high seas! Remember the Titanic (the ship, not the movie)? So, the more astute amongst you will say (yawn), ‘Throw a rope around them and tie them to something. Problem solved. Where’s my rum and iceberg?’ Exactly! ‘Har har’ others scoff, ‘Do you have any idea how big an iceberg is?’ Ditto exactly! Last question first: In 1987 an iceberg with an area of 6350 square kilometers broke from the Ross Ice Shelf. That berg had a mass of around 1.4 trillion tonnes and could have supplied everyone in the world with 240 tonnes of pure drinking water*.  Try throwing a line around that bad boy! Of course that’s Antarctica, where nobody lives except mad scientists and penguins (with whom some have formed questionable relationships involving dancing, which fortunately for them is not a subject for this blog). Nearer to us, however, the largest recorded iceberg was encountered near Baffin Island in 1882. It was 13 km long, 6 km wide and had a freeboard (height above water) of about 20 m. The mass of that iceberg was in excess of 9 billion tonnes - enough water for everyone in the world to drink a litre a day for over 4 years*. Still, you might think, one can’t just tie something like that to a solid object and expect it to stay there. True. But that doesn’t stop people from trying, and it has been proven possible to lasso an iceberg:

An iceberg lasso awaits use in Newfoundland.

Towing icebergs was first scientifically demonstrated in 1971 in Newfoundland (of course! Where else? – ed.). It is now a common practice in the management of icebergs for the offshore oil industry. Towing may not be the best term however, as often massive icebergs are merely deflected slightly from their paths. The tow is arranged by a vessel navigating around a berg while paying out a floating tow line. A junction is made so that the berg is

Was the island in the background once an iceberg?**

lassoed and then tow tension is applied carefully to avoid rolling the berg or pulling the line over the top*. Well, there you go – the solution to Continental Drift is exactly what we need to solve Iceberg Drift! Big strings! What’s next? Glad you asked. Once you have a line around an iceberg, you just drag it towards shore until it grounds on the ocean bottom. Then you throw some dirt on it, plant some grass and before you know it you’ve got a new island! With lots of water inside. People and animals could live on it. There is credible speculation that this is exactly how the Vikings created Iceland (hint: the name!) a couple thousand years ago; in fact, most islands north of the 53^rd parallel were probably icebergs at one time, although the scientific proof of this is still being assembled. OK, there actually isn’t any yet, but it could be true, eh?  Never underestimate the tie that binds, that's what I say. Speaking of which:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U4PkMuw0mU

*True iceberg facts courtesy of www.IcebergFinder.com
Made up facts about everything courtesy of the author.
** Photo courtesy of Bonnie Lillies of Ferryland, Newfoundland, professional iceberg lassoer, who personally made the island in the photo and is working on another one using the iceberg in the foreground, as soon as she collects enough dirt. So she says, but it could just be the Black Horse talking, if you know what I mean, b'y...