Christchurch temblor likely gave weakened glacier "last kick," expert says.
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Tourists observe an ice chunk that fell into Tasman Lake on Tuesday.
Photograph by Denis Callesen, NZPA
Published February 23, 2011
The New Zealand earthquake broke an iceberg the size of 20 football fields off the country's longest glacier.
A huge vertical slab calved off the front of the Tasman Glacier (see map) into Tasman Lake after the 6.3-magnitude quake had hit Tuesday afternoon. The temblor was centered about 125 miles (200 kilometers) away, nearChristchurch (see map). (See pictures of the New Zealand earthquake's aftermath.)
The chunk is estimated to have been three-fourths of a mile (1,200 meters) long by 250 feet (75 meters) wide, scientists say.
The iceberg's collapse also kicked up 10-foot (3.5-meter) waves in Tasman Lake.
"We heard a large crack like a high-powered rifle," a U.S. tourist who had been on a glacier tour at the time told the New Zealand Herald.
New Zealand Earthquake Gave Glacier "Last Kick?"
Such an event is rare but not unprecedented, said Martin Truffer, a glaciologist at the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Read the whole story on: National Geographic
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