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CNN LIVE FROM... 13:31 ET April 22, 2005

Bumpin' Berg

PHILLIPS: Well, scientists who study Antarctic icebergs are pretty excited today -- I have to admit, I am, too -- after some satellite images showed something that they've long been expecting, an icy bump at the bottom of the world.

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PHILLIPS (voice-over): It doesn't have an impressive name -- B- 15-A -- but it's one of the world's biggest icebergs and a force to be reckoned with. Flashback to 2002: I traveled 14,000 miles to the bottom of the world, Antarctica, and saw it in all its glory.

(on camera): If you were to chop up this iceberg, everybody in the world would get a 25-pound bag of ice every day for the next 75 years. Now, if you were to melt it, it would cover Texas in eight feet of water, and it would supply the United States with all its water needs for the next five years.

But now, B-15-A is causing gigantic problems. The drifting iceberg has hit the tip of an Antarctic glacier, the Drygowski Ice Tongue (ph), snapping off a block about three miles square. The collision was captured in these remarkable satellite photos.

JOHN PIKE, GLOBALSECURITY.ORG: The much larger, grayer object is this B-15-A, super iceberg that has just collided with the glacier ice flow out in the sea. This B-15, the big iceberg, may look like Manhattan but it's actually dozens of times larger than Manhattan.

PHILLIPS: Of grave concern, penguin breeding colonies. The giant berg has blocked sea access for some months now. Penguins are forced to trudge some 110 miles to open water to gather food. Adult penguins may be able to tough it out, but there are fears that tens of thousands of penguin chicks who can't swim far to feed will starve.

That's also bad news for scientists studying penguins who say they are a key indicator of the state of the environment. The bergs also blocking fuel and supply deliveries to antarctic research stations. PIKE: There is certainly hope at this point based on the recent movement of the iceberg that it's going to head out to sea, letting the penguins get to feeding areas and letting the resupply ships get into the American station. The problem, of course, is that they have been tracking this iceberg for several months now and it's consistently failed to do what they predicted.

PHILLIPS: The collision was actually expected sometime ago. But the iceberg became stranded on a sandbar. I remember this chilling moment from my trip in 2002. I was in Antarctica with Dr. Doug McGale who is studying birds and weather patterns. We were packing up to go and then this...

DR. DOUG MCGALE: A giant crack has run up about 20 kilometers and it stops over there. So that means we are going to see the iceberg split in half very soon. Maybe as we are standing on it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's time to waive B-15 good-bye.

PHILLIPS: Moments later we were in the air and saw a split.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This crack is going to be the death of B-15- A.

PHILLIPS: As the last of the suns rays hit the frozen continent and winter closes in on the region -- in Antarctica, winter means no more sunlight for months. Scientists will wait and watch for the iceberg's next move. Kyra Phillips, CNN, Atlanta.

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PHILLIPS: Scientists say that the renegade iceberg's will most likely head out to sea. It'll be tough to follow its movements. Since it's winter there now, the sun won't shine until august.

HARRIS: Wow.