![]() ![]() BAS reported that the station, which was relocated farther inland in 2016 as the chasm widened, was unaffected by the recent break.īAS glaciologist Professor Dominic Hodgson adds this important note: (For reference, the Antarctic Peninsula and its ice shelves are located on the opposite side of the Weddell.) The shelf has long been home to the British Antarctic Survey’s Halley Research Station, where scientists study Earth, atmospheric, and space weather processes. The glacial ice in the shelf flows away from the interior of Antarctica and floats on the eastern Weddell Sea. National Ice Center has named it Iceberg A-81. The question among scientists was not if the growing rift would finish traversing the shelf and break, but when? Now, nearly four years later, it has done just that.Īccording to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the break occurred late on January 22, 2023, and produced a new iceberg with an area of 1550 square kilometers (about 600 square miles). In February 2019, a rift spanning most of the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica appeared ready to spawn an iceberg about twice the size of New York City. Currents will take it on a north-northeast arc, pushing it toward the South Georgia and Sandwich Islands, just as others before it.An iceberg twice the size of New York City broke off Antarctica this week - something scientists have predicted for four years. The massive iceberg that's now floating along in the Southern Ocean, off the coast of Antarctica, will likely break up over time, Shuman said. "But at the moment, we don't think it'll have a dramatic impact on this ice in the Antarctic Peninsula," Shuman said. If that happens, there would be a rise in sea levels. And if they see the shelf pulling away from the ice that's holding it where it is, that could add to the chance of the Larsen C collapsing entirely. However, if they see the region's slow-moving glaciers start to speed up, things could change in years to come. Yes, the Larsen C will have retreated farther west than we've ever known it to have retreated before," Shuman said. "On the other hand, it has dropped large before."Īs for whether this could result in more inland ice sheets making their way to the ocean, ultimately leading to ocean rise, Shuman said that should remain stable right now, because so much of the ice shelf is left. "Obviously we have been seeing climate change impacts, and it's possible that this is going to put the ice shelf in a much more vulnerable position."Īntarctica is home to several ice shelves, with some of the biggest highlighted here. "There have been large increases in temperature in this region over the last half-century or so," said Martin O'Leary, a research scientist and glaciologist at Swansea University. Still, this calving event occurred in an area of the Antarctic that has experienced a warming trend since the 1950s. Well, that's an awful lot that's gone missing.' On the other hand, there have been previous large bergs from this area." "This is a worrisome sign for the Larsen C: you can't lose 12 or 13 per cent of your area from an ice shelf and not think, 'Hmm. "We just can't make a clear connection to this being driven by climate change at this time," Shuman said. Antarctic ice melt tied to El Nino warming. ![]() Climate change is making Antarctica greener.And while there is a lot of talk about how climate change is affecting the poles, the calving, or breaking off, of parts of ice shelves can't be directly linked to warming temperatures, as it's something that's been seen throughout recorded history. ![]()
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