According to the BAS in the same statement, there is "no evidence that climate change has played a significant role" in this specific event. The Brunt Ice Shelf, which typically flows west at about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) per year, routinely experiences calving events. The team working at the BAS Halley Research Station say that the station is unlikely to be affected by the recent calving event, according to the same BAS statement. Ice calving, or iceberg or glacier calving, occurs when large pieces of ice break off of a glacier. These scientists have been expecting a large "calving event" for at least a decade, according to the BAS. (Image credit: British Antarctic Survey)įor years, glaciologists have monitored the cracks that have formed in the Brunt Ice Shelf, a large floating slab of ice 492 feet (150 meters) thick located on Antarctica's northern rim and the site of the British Antarctic Survey's (BAS) Halley Research Station. The best way to mitigate these losses is to rapidly decarbonise and limit global heating.A map shows the Halley VI research station in relation to the north rift crack. Glaciers in the Himalayas could disappear by as early as 2035. Switzerland’s 1,400 glaciers have shrunk by more than half in the last 85 years, while Arctic sea ice has decreased by about 40 per cent since 1978. The melt problem is evident all over the world. Meltwater from these sheets is responsible for about one-third of the global average rise in sea level since 1993. Greenland is melting at around 280 billion tons per year. This breakage isn’t linked to climate change - but it’s the exception, not the rule.Īs temperatures increase, Antarctica is losing ice mass at an average rate of about 150 billion tons per year. If they hadn’t done so, it would currently be floating out to sea on the new iceberg. The British Antarctic Survey recently moved their station inland. The reason it's important, it's a very large calving event for Antarctica.” "So it's not linked to any changes in atmospheric or ocean temperatures. It's well below freezing there,” he explains. "Some of the ice shelves that are broken up in more northerly locations are the result of climate change. Perhaps surprisingly, the event is not linked to climate change, Hogson says. “This one has been doing that for a number of years now.” One of the largest icebergs ever recorded 2,500 square miles, which is about the size of Delaware is about to break off Antarctica, according to the European Space Agency. So they do periodically extend out to sea and then break off. “The ice shelves around Antarctica are extensions, floating extensions, of the Antarctic ice sheet. Such cracks are common around the edges of Antarctica, explains Professor Dominic Hodgson, a glaciologist for the British Antarctic Survey. The Chasm-1 crack has been forming for a few years - as evidenced by striking footage from 2019. Why has this massive iceberg broken off Antarctica? It will be named later by the US National Ice Center. The icy mass is likely to drift into the Weddell Sea. A tale of two disasters: Missing Titanic sub captivates the world days after deadly migrant shipwreck. The new berg is the second iceberg to break off in two years, as a massive crack called ‘Chasm-1’ extends through the Brunt ice shelf. The good news is that the split is a natural process known as ‘calving,’ and is not linked to climate change, the British Antarctic Survey say. ![]() The huge iceberg, which measures more than 1,550 square kilometers, broke away from the 150-meter-thick Brunt Ice Shelf on Sunday. LONDON - A vast iceberg equivalent to the size of Greater London has broken off the Antarctic ice shelf.
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