Iceberg B-9

[1] Initially, B-9 moved northwest for seven months, before being drawn southward by a subsurface current that eventually led to its colliding with the Ross Ice Shelf in August 1988.

[5] By December 2011, Iceberg B-9B had made its way into Commonwealth Bay and had broken up into three major pieces, parts of which froze to the seabed.

[6] The huge iceberg prevented three tourist ships from reaching Antarctica; they had been intended to mark the centenary of the polar voyage of Australian explorer Douglas Mawson who had landed at Cape Denison on January 8, 1912, and constructed a complex of huts, which remain standing.

[6] These ships attempted to reach the cape, but had to turn back, in light of unusually harsh[vague] conditions caused by B-9B's position in the bay.

A spokeswoman from the Australian government's Antarctic division observed: "There [are] unusual ice conditions ... affecting all the tourist ships that are going down there[,] because the tourist ships don't have ice-breaking capabilities, and they also don't have choppers, so their ability to get anywhere near the Mawson's huts area is basically stopped.