The British Antarctic Survey said the formation of the new iceberg was not due to climate change [Courtesy: NASA Earth Observatory]
Wed 25 January 2023:
A massive iceberg nearly the size of Greater London has broken off the Antarctic ice shelf near a research station, the second such split in two years, according to researchers.
The iceberg, measuring 1,550 square kilometers (598 square miles), broke away from the Brunt Ice Shelf’s 150-metre (492-foot) thickness a decade after scientists discovered massive cracks in the shelf.
According to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the new iceberg formed due to a natural process known as “calving,” rather than climate change, which is intensifying the loss of sea ice in the Arctic and parts of Antarctica.
WORLD’S LARGEST ICEBERG BREAKS OFF ANTARCTICA: EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
“This calving event has been expected and is part of the natural behaviour of the Brunt Ice Shelf,” said BAS glaciologist Dominic Hodgson. “It is not linked to climate change.”
Scientists refer to “calving” when chunks of ice break off at the terminus, or end, of a glacier.
The fissure in the ice sheet, which researchers named Chasm-1, was discovered years ago. In the years since, the gap widened until the chunk of ice broke away.
A similar spectacular separation, involving a 1,270sq km (490 square miles) iceberg, occurred about a year ago.
The iceberg, which has yet to be named by the US National Ice Center, is now expected to drift off with the current along the Antarctic coast like previous massive icebergs.
The Halley VI Research Station in the United Kingdom monitors the state of the vast floating ice shelf on a daily basis and is unaffected by the latest rupture.
As cracks in the ice threatened to cut it off, the mobile research base was relocated to the station about 20km (12.4 miles) further inland in 2016.
Since then, personnel have only been deployed during the Antarctic summer, from November to March, with 21 researchers currently on-site.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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