[ad_1]
This dramatic disintegration occurred after 2020. November a large crack formed in the shelf, which continued to grow until it finally broke on February 26. in the morning.
The so-called “North Rift” is the third major rift to actively breach the Brunt Ice Shelf over the past decade, prompting British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scientists to expect such a shift, according to BAS Director Dame Jane. Francis.
“In the next few weeks or months, the iceberg may drift away or run aground and remain close to the Brunt Ice Shelf,” the report adds.
Month of January. North Gap grew at a rate of about 1 km per day to the northeast; But on the morning of February 26, the crack widened a couple of hundred meters in a matter of hours.
This ice breaking is due to a natural process and there is no evidence that climate change has played a significant role, according to the statement. The Brunto Ice Shelf, a 150 meter thick ice sheet, moves westward 2 km a year and is regularly separated by icebergs.
However, this iceberg was very large, with an estimated size of about 1,270 km2.
“While the rupture of large parts of the Antarctic ice shelf is fairly common, major events such as those found on February 26 remain relatively rare and exciting,” said Adrian Luckman, a professor at Swansea University who has been observing the platform in satellite images for the last few weeks.
The BAS Halley VI research station is located on the Brunt Ice Shelf, where scientists monitor atmospheric weather; however, the station is unlikely to be affected by this decomposition, according to the report.
2016 BAS has relocated the station 32km to land to avoid two other major ice shelf cracks called Chasm 1 and Halloween Crack, which have not expanded further in the past 18 months, according to the statement.
The research station is now closed for the winter and a team of 12 people left Antarctica in early February.
Due to the unpredictability of iceberg formation and the difficulty of evacuating in cold, dark winters, the research team worked at the station only during the Antarctic summer for the past four years.
More than ten GPS monitors measure and transmit information on ice deformation from the shelf to equipment in the UK every day. The researchers are also using satellite imagery from the European Space Agency, NASA, and Germany’s TerraSAR-X satellite to monitor the ice.
[ad_2]
