In 2002, a gargantuan iceberg broke away from the Ross Ice Sheet in Antarctica. It was approximately a rectangle 218 km long, 25.0 km wide, and 250.0 m thick. What is the mass of this iceberg, given that the density of ice is 917 kg/m3? How much heat transfer (in joules) is needed to melt the iceberg? How many years would it take sunlight alone to melt ice this thick, if the ice absorbs an average of 105 W/m2, 12.0 hours per day?

Question

The answers to the first 2 questions are 1.249*10^15kg and 4.173*10^20J. I just need the answer to how many years it'd take for the sun to melt the ice.

Answer 1

heat of fusion (melting) for ice is ... 334 J/g

unit energy absorption is ... 105 J/s m^2
... multiply by the area to find total energy absorption rate

divide the mass of the ice by the heat of fusion to find total energy of melting

divide the total melting energy by the total energy absorption rate
... to find the melting time
... remember, only 12 hr per day

Answer 2

I got 46.2