#ANTARCTICA ICEBERG BREAKING OFF 2017 CRACK#

#ANTARCTICA ICEBERG BREAKING OFF 2017 CRACK#

Over the past few years the crack has accelerated dramatically, spreading 33 feet per day to a distance topping 120 miles. Since at least 2010, a portion of the 19,000 square-mile Larsen-C has been tearing away from the shelf like a broken zipper. We’re going to be watching very carefully for signs that the rest of the shelf is becoming unstable.” “This is the furthest back that the ice front has been in recorded history. “Although this is a natural event, and we’re not aware of any link to human-induced climate change, this puts the ice shelf in a very vulnerable position,” Martin O’Leary, a glaciologist on the Midas team, said in a statement. But it’s still worrying because of the long-term impact it could have on the rest of the shelf’s ice. Sea levels won’t rise from this new iceberg because the ice was already in the ocean. Scientists have been expecting this event for months, and say it wasn’t caused by climate change. It totals about 2,240 square miles - about the size of the state of Delaware - and its volume, 40 trillion cubic feet of ice, is twice that of Lake Erie, reports Project Midas, a UK-based science group dedicated to studying the ice shelf. The trillion-ton piece of ice just broke off from the Larsen-C ice shelf on the Antarctic peninsula. ”įrom yesterday's #IceBridge flight: The western edge of iceberg A68, which calved in July new edge of Larsen C Ice Shelf in the distance world has a new iceberg that’s so massive in size that maps of Antarctica will soon have to be redrawn. “This calving is unique in the history of the ice shelf since first seen by human eyes. “For me, there is no doubt that this event is not part of a natural cycle,” NASA researcher Eric Rignot told the Washington Post. One thing scientists are certain of is that these events are a cause for concern. Since A-68 was already floating atop the water, scientists believe the massive chunk of ice will not immediately contribute to sea-level rise, but they are unable to predict the iceberg’s trajectory or how quickly it may melt if it floats into warmer water. Read More: The US Government Is Censoring the Phrase ‘Climate Change’įrom yesterday's #IceBridge flight: Looking out from the sea ice to iceberg A68, which calved from Antarctica's Larson C ice shelf in July /0oq9dzUbz1 “There is enough ice in Antarctica that if it all melted, or even just flowed into the ocean, sea levels rise by 60 meters,” climate change expert Martin Siegert told the Guardian in July.

Most ice shelves are located along the coast of Antarctica and when the shelves disintegrate - or break off in huge chunks as A-68 did - glaciers flow into the ocean up to five times faster, hastening sea-level rise.Īntarctica contains 90% of the world’s ice. Ice shelves are thick, permanent floating sheets of ice anchored to frozen land masses which form as glaciers creep toward the sea. Read More: Congress Just Voted to Open Up the Arctic to Oil Drilling Global Citizen campaigns on slowing climate change and achieving sustainable growth around the world. Scientists say this is evidence of the impact of climate change on crucial polar ice shelves. The 100-mile long rift that caused it to break off had accelerated rapidly since 2011. The trillion-ton, 2,200 square-mile iceberg first separated from the vast Larsen ice-shelf in mid-July. “To see it fully detached, to see this massive block of ice floating out there, was pretty shocking.”įrom yesterday's #IceBridge flight: The edge of Larsen C Ice Shelf with the western edge of iceberg A68 in the distance /lN4lHanIfY “I was shocked, because we flew over the iceberg itself and it looks like it’s still part of the ice shelf, in terms of how large it is and the surface texture,” Operation IceBridge scientist Nathan Kurtz, who took the photographs, told the Washington Post. The sheer size of A-68 has stunned even the most seasoned Antarctic researchers.

Antarctica iceberg breaking off 2017