In a horrific example of ageism, children aged 3 to 12 can compete to name an iceberg currently floating off Antarctica.

Aged hacks are excluded from the contest, which will see the winner’s pick for the 150 km long berg officially recognized by the US National Ice Center. The initiative is part of the Hay-on-Wye literary festival in the UK, reports the Times.

Entries will be judged by Julian Dowdeswell, director of the Scott Polar Research Institute, and children’s author Jacqueline Wilson, says the festival website. The competition opens on May 22.

The name indicates that this iceberg is a piece of a larger chunk that was the 19th detected by NIC in ‘quadrant C’ of the Antarctic, see NIC:

The letter of the quadrant, along with a sequential number is assigned to the iceberg. For example, A-38 is sequentially the 38th iceberg found by the NIC in Antarctica between 0-90W (Quadrant A). When a currently identified and named iceberg breaks apart, the new division(s) are also named. These “new” icebergs include the “host” iceberg’s original name and an alpha suffix to identify it as a product of the original iceberg. Therefore, if A-38 breaks into three pieces, the three new icebergs would be designated as A-38A (the host iceberg with a revised alpha suffix), A-38B, and A-38C.

Image: C19A on March 18 / NOAA