Posted By: Eugene Taylor

Wed Nov 8, 5:53 AM ET

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Scores of icebergs have floated to
within about 300 km (186 miles) of New Zealand, with the
largest measuring about 1.8 km (1.1 miles) in length and
standing some 120 meters (360 feet) above water.
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National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research
oceanographer Mike Williams said on Wednesday the icebergs were
likely part of a larger piece of ice which broke off the Ronne
Ice Shelf, located southeast of the Falkland Islands, six years
ago.

The original iceberg, named A-43, was 167 km (104 miles)
long 32 km (20 miles) wide.

Williams said about 100 icebergs, first detected by New
Zealand's air force on Friday, had drifted eastward, south of
Africa and Australia, in the dominant Antarctic Circumpolar
Current.

"It's a natural but a rare phenomenon. It requires a lot of
rare occurrences to happen simultaneously," he said.

"This iceberg has to have managed to make it to the right
place in the main currents in the Southern Ocean to have gotten
all the way around to New Zealand without melting.

"Then, it has to have moved far enough north to have got
pushed up toward New Zealand rather than pushed further south
which is what happens to most icebergs."

Williams said large icebergs break off Antarctica every 50
or 60 years.

"I don't we think can specifically say this iceberg is
linked to global warming," he added.

About 90 percent of an iceberg is under water so it is
unlikely that bigger icebergs would reach the shallow coasts of
New Zealand, said Williams, adding ships traveling through the
area should exercise caution.

The icebergs lie south of Invercargill on New Zealand's
south island.

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