alt Hacker NewsI would have thought it would generate enormous wave, but that's clearly not the case. I think some of the biggest waves was generated by a mountain sliding or collapsing in the sea. I expected something similar here. Anyone know why not?
Replies
cucumber3732842 • today at 3:48 PM
The amount of water actually being displaced isn't changing much, it's just kind of rearranging around where is water and where is ice.
javier2 • today at 4:11 PM
i suppose its not actually displacing a lot of water volume, unlike a landslide.
staplers • today at 3:50 PM
All its mass is already on the water so it's not displacing anything. It probably made some splashes but it seems like a fairly round object rotating rather than smashing into anything
dist-epoch • today at 3:48 PM
Maybe because ice floats, and it's almost the same density as water?
It is not a very energetic event for its size. The iceberg is floating, it can't accumulate a lot of potential energy before flipping, so when it happens, there is not enough to make big waves. The center of gravity of the iceberg barely moves.
A mountain sliding into the sea is different, these higher up rocks have a lot of potential energy, that convert into kinetic energy as they fall, which is transferred to the water as they splash down, making big waves.