TITLE: Why do icebergs flip over?
QUESTION [2 upvotes]: Why do icebergs flip over? Are certain shapes of icebergs more "stable" than others, in that it's harder to flip them over? If so, why?
For example, it somehow makes intuitive sense, that a thick iceberg with a certain height (or depth, because 90% of it is below water) would be harder to flip over than a thin one with the same height/depth. But why is this the case?

REPLY [1 votes]: This is a nice Newtonian physics question. A very simplified analogue to this is to consider the stable positions of a 2-dimensional table shape iceberg with length $L$, width $W$ ($W < L$).
Typically the material density ratio of $\rho_{\text{ice}} / \rho_{\text{water}} = 0.9$. In a force equilibrium, this leads to the fact that 90% of the iceberg is immersed in water. As with the inverse pendulum, there are stable and unstable force equilibriums.
Algebraically, it is simpler to consider the energy equation for a table iceberg with the short side up versus the long side up. You'll find that the short side up is energetically better, and leads to a stable minimum.
Most of the energy difference is dissipated in creating water waves during the flip.
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