![]() ![]() "Our network of GPS instruments will give us early warning if the calving of this iceberg causes changes in the ice around our station. Halley Station is located inland of all the active chasms, on the part of the ice shelf that remains connected to the continent," Francis said. "Over (the) coming weeks or months, the iceberg may move away or it could run aground and remain close to Brunt Ice Shelf. Icebergs naturally break off from Antarctica into the ocean, but the process has been accelerated by climate change.īAS, however, said there was "no evidence that climate change has played a significant role" in this case. While the team is away, scientists monitor the ice shelf using data from GPS instruments that are sent back to Cambridge, England, for analysis. An enormous iceberg has broken off in Antarctica. Britain's Halley VI Research Station was moved inland four years ago for safety reason Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/British Antarctic Survey/S. ESA/Earth Observation The A-76 iceberg is around 4,320 square kilometres big, thats bigger than the island of Majorca. The research station was uninhabited when the iceberg finally split as its 12-member team had left earlier this month ahead of the Antarctic winter. A huge iceberg, seven times the size of New York City, broke off of Antarctica, scientists said Wednesday. ![]() "That was a wise decision," said Simon Garrod, BAS director of operations.īritain's Halley VI Research Station, which monitors the state of the vast floating ice shelf daily, is located about 20 kilometers from where the iceberg broke off. The research station was moved inland four years ago for safety reasons. The events leading up to the major split began accelerating in November last year, BAS said in a statement. "Our teams at BAS have been prepared for the calving of an iceberg from Brunt Ice Shelf for years," said the British Antarctic Survey director Professor Dame Jane Francis. Scientists had been expecting a huge chunk of ice to break away for almost a decade after the first "vast cracks" had formed on the shelf. The iceberg measuring 1,270 square kilometers (490 square miles) came off the 150-meter-thick Brunt Ice Shelf in a process called "calving." When an iceberg breaks from an ice shelf, an adjustment in the flow of ice into the ice shelf follows, which may influence the behavior of other cracks in the area and contribute to destabilization of the Brunt Ice Shelf over time.A giant iceberg, larger than the size of most European cities, has broken away from Antarctica, near a British research station, the British Antarctic Survey said Friday. “This calving event has been expected and is part of the natural behavior of the Brunt Ice Shelf,” Glaciologist Dominic Hodgson said. Unlike the Larsen C Ice Shelf - which had extensive surface meltwater at the time of its collapse in 2017 - there is no evidence that climate change played a significant role in the changes with the Brunt Ice Shelf. When ice shelves like Larsen C are lost, it allows land-based ice to flow into the ocean more quickly, contributing to sea-level rise.įact check: Greenhouse gases are a driving factor in global warming, contrary to post The calving of the massive new iceberg was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Aqua satellite, and confirmed by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite instrument on the joint NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar. GPS instruments surrounding the station take multiple daily measurements of the ice shelf and researchers' observations provide key information on atmospheric and space weather in a climate-sensitive zone. An iceberg about the size of the state of Delaware split off from Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf sometime between July 10 and July 12. The BAS Halley Research Station, which relocated 14 miles inland of Chasm-1 a few years ago after it began to widen, was unaffected by the recent break off. With six Halley research stations on the Brunt Ice Shelf since 1956 – the calving event, although unexpected time-wise, has long been anticipated. ![]() Scientists at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) who monitor the behavior of the ice shelf - the part of a land-based ice sheet that floats on the ocean - first observed this crack extending in 2012 after having been dormant for some decades, according to the European Space Agency. ![]()
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