Iceberg Motion in the Gerlache Strait

Abstract

The First Colombian Scientific Expedition to the Antarctic was carried out during the summer period of the South Hemisphere (January-February 2015) in the Gerlache Strait located by the Antarctic Peninsula. One of the most important investigation tasks during the expedition was the need of having a short-term forecast system of icebergs’ trajectories which would help to improve navigation safety for tourist and oceanographic vessels in the region. This paper characterizes the main mechanisms of iceberg’s motion, their mathematical representation, and discusses some possible improvements to the way that iceberg dynamics are described.