{"id":499129,"date":"2026-05-23T14:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T14:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/499129\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T14:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T14:01:12","slug":"antarctic-station-discovers-its-shipping-containers-floating-away-on-iceberg-after-blizzard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/499129\/","title":{"rendered":"Antarctic station discovers its shipping containers floating away on iceberg after blizzard"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the air, they look like seven little ants on a torn piece of white paper.<\/p>\n

But a closer inspection of the satellite image reveals something very different.<\/p>\n

The “ants” are actually large shipping containers \u2014 including one filled with diesel and others packed with rubbish.<\/p>\n

And the “white paper” is a huge iceberg, 500 metres long and 300 metres wide.<\/p>\n

\"Seven<\/p>\n

The containers floated out to sea on the iceberg. (Supplied: ATCM)<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the iceberg and shipping containers were spotted floating off the coast of Antarctica.<\/p>\n

How they ended up there \u2014 and the environmental consequences of what followed \u2014 have been revealed in a report by Antarctic officials from Germany.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The German government and the AWI (Alfred Wegener Institute) deeply regret the incident and are glad that no-one was injured,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

the report stated.\"A<\/p>\n

There was about an 18-kilometre distance between the iceport, where the containers were, and the German Antarctic station. (Supplied: ATCM)<\/p>\n

Ice shelf cracks during severe storm<\/p>\n

It all started with the best of intentions.<\/p>\n

Germany’s Neumayer Station III is located on an ice shelf, about 18 kilometres inland from the sea.<\/p>\n

In preparation for the arrival of a vessel that was due to pick up the station’s waste, seven shipping containers were positioned a few hundred metres from the icy coastline.<\/p>\n

The containers included one with 9,500 litres of Arctic diesel, four with non-hazardous waste, another with a generator and fuel, and one that provided shelter for workers.<\/p>\n

At the time, there were no visible signs of crevasses, cracks or fissures in the ice.<\/p>\n

But over the next week, between January 13 and 20, a blizzard with winds of 130 kilometres an hour hit the region.<\/p>\n

When the conditions finally eased on January 21, an inspection was carried out.<\/p>\n

“The logistics team discovered that an iceberg measuring around 500 metres by 300 metres had broken off and drifted into the Weddell Sea,” the report said.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, all of the \u2026 containers were on this iceberg.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The shipping containers belonged to Germany’s Neumayer Station III. (Supplied: AWI)<\/p>\n

Ship’s crew spots iceberg with containers<\/p>\n

Germany’s Antarctic officials initially considered deploying a plane to search for the missing containers.<\/p>\n

But the following day, crew on the German icebreaker RV Polarstern spotted the iceberg and the seven containers.<\/p>\n

“The ship immediately ended its scientific investigations [and] travelled to the iceberg, which had drifted \u2026 around 140km to the south-east of Neumayer ice port.”<\/p>\n

Glaciologists were then tasked with assessing whether it would be safe to conduct a retrieval operation.<\/p>\n

The iceberg was found to have an overall thickness of 81 metres, including 15 metres above the sea surface.<\/p>\n

“The assessment showed that some areas of iceberg were deemed stable enough to allow an exploration team to land on the iceberg.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Shipping<\/p>\n

Seven shipping containers, including a fuel container, broke away from the ice shelf during a storm. (Supplied: ATCM)<\/p>\n

Helicopters were then used to collect almost 1 tonne of equipment, including three drums filled with about 580 litres of Arctic diesel, as well as gas cylinders and batteries.<\/p>\n

But that was all that could be salvaged.<\/p>\n

“As the risk of the iceberg breaking apart increased, it was impossible to secure more of the cargo without risking human life,” the report stated.<\/p>\n

“So the salvage attempts were stopped [on January 25] and the remaining material had to remain on the iceberg.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

‘Diesel will have leaked’<\/p>\n

The last satellite sighting of the iceberg was almost a month later, on February 22.<\/p>\n

“It can be assumed that the iceberg has disintegrated shortly afterwards and that the containers have sunk to the seabed,” the report stated.<\/p>\n

It suggested the four containers with household items and rubbish would have “little direct impact on the ecosystem”.<\/p>\n

However, the report said the container filled with fuel posed a much bigger risk.<\/p>\n

“It can be assumed that it was either damaged by the fall into the sea or imploded on its way to the sea floor.<\/p>\n

“In both cases, the diesel will have leaked out.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

The Polar 6 research plane surveyed the iceberg on January 29. (Supplied: ATCM)<\/p>\n

The report noted Arctic diesel was lighter and more volatile than heavy fuel oil, meaning it might evaporate more quickly.<\/p>\n

But it said Antarctica’s low temperatures would slow down any bacterial degradation in the water or sea ice.<\/p>\n

“It can therefore be assumed that the fuel will remain in the system for a longer period of time.<\/p>\n

“The actual impacts on the ecosystem depend to a large extent on local conditions and therefore cannot be precisely quantified.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Germany’s Antarctic officials said lessons had been learned as a result of the incident.<\/p>\n

“In order to further reduce the risk of such a loss of cargo in the future, containers will be stored from now on … at least 5,000 metres distance to the ice shelf edge.”<\/p>\n

The report said further glaciological investigations, including ice thickness and consistency, would also be carried out along the route from the Neumayer Station III to the ice port.<\/p>\n

The report was tabled at the annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, which wrapped up in the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the air, they look like seven little ants on a torn piece of white paper. But a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[269],"tags":[27467,12048,87708,217043,18,440,6060,63224,19,17,217044,133,217042,62764],"class_list":["post-499129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-antarctic","tag-antarctica","tag-base","tag-break-away","tag-eire","tag-environment","tag-german","tag-iceberg","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-neumayer-station","tag-science","tag-shipping-container","tag-tas"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116624260348486580","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}