Did they ever find the Titanic iceberg?

[max_tranmere]

I re-watched Titanic on Channel 5 two nights ago and it got me thinking. Icebergs are seriously big and in freezing cold regions like the ones you find them in they are not going to ever melt. They probably last for thousands of years. Does anyone know if they ever established which iceberg Titanic hit? It will still be there in the north Atlantic today, and will probably still have the scuff marks on its side where the Titanic hit.

[Peter]

Nope they melt.

They break off from the big ice sheets like you see on the global warming propaganda, float around for a bit, the bit under the water melts away, so the 'berg is continually tumbling over as it weight shifts, eventually melting away.

[jj]

Yes; in the N Atlantic an ex-polar 'berg of, say, 5 tonnes will melt
in about three days, due mainly to the temp.-difference but also the
higher salinity and consequent concentration-gradient.

[one eyed jack]

I hope that iceberg suffered a miserable meltdown

[jj]

I once met a porpoise who had passed by the 'T-berg' during its
dying days, and it told my friend Gerdundula [odd name for a marine
mammal, but there you go- I don't speak 'dolphin']: "Oiiii !! 'Oo
put that fuckin' great tin can in my way"?

[crofter]

Yes I have it in my freezer and quite regularly have a chunk or two to wash down my Gin n' Tonic ...

[max_tranmere]

If people are sure they melt quite quickly then I will take their word for it but that does surprise me. As everyone knows, nine-tenths of it is underwater and in freezing cold water I am surprised a massive block of ice that would weigh thousand of tons and his hundreds of metres by hundreds of metres cubed, would just melt away - and quickly. How do new ones form if the present ones just melt and disappear all the time? I assumed they were originally part of the huge polar icecaps, split away, and floated over many many years to their present site.

[Sarah Kelly]

your very clever jj- you know all sorts of crap(said with humour- could have said "Things/knowledge/info") but wheres the mirth in that........ im all for mirth me. x

[Sam Slater]

Paths of icebergs in the North Atlantic:

[img]http://www.ndu.edu/inss/books/Books%20- ... gmap13.gif[/img]

Resting place of Titanic:

[img]http://www.nornc.com/stuff/liners/titan ... nicmap.gif[/img]

Warm water currents (solid lines) meeting cold water currents (dashed lines):

[img]http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/oc ... g11-8s.jpg[/img]

As you can see, the iceberg that hit the titanic would have drifted right into the warm surface currents referred to as the Gulf Stream (very important if you go surfing in Cornwall or the Biarritz to Hossegor coastline in France) and wouldn't have lasted more than a few days, being continually pounded by the ocean.

[max_tranmere]

Thanks Sam, that's interesting. Could 1,000's of tons of deeply compacted ice, that would have taken some while to form, just completely melt away in a few days though?