Antarctic Ice Shelf Twice The Size Of New York City Is Breaking Up

Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com – Scientists knew this was going to happen sooner or later and the event is now unavoidable.

An Antarctic iceberg, measuring over 1,500 square kilometers, which is twice the size of New York City is expected to break away from the Brunt Ice Shelf within the next few months when two large cracks which have been growing over the past seven years meet.

This is the Halloween Crack, which was discovered on 31 October 2016. Credit: Courtesy Jan de Rydt, Northumbria University; British Antarctic Survey

The Brunt Ice Shelf is a large floating area of ice, around 150m to 250m thick, and is made up of freshwater ice which originally fell as snow further inland.

The rifting started several years ago and is now approaching its final phase. In anticipation of the iceberg breaking away, the research station, which is currently unmanned, has been relocated to a safer location on the ice shelf, meaning there is no danger posed to personnel.

The break-off has been a target of lots of speculations and many think we’re seeing serious climate changes, but Professor Hilmar Gudmundsson of Northumbria University says it’s a completely natural process.

“I have been carrying out research in this area for more than 15 years and have been monitoring the growth of the cracks since they first emerged in 2012.

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Satellite images of the changes in the ice shelf have been shared online and there has been much speculation about the cause of this movement and the impact the iceberg will have when it breaks away,” Professor Gudmundsson said in a press statement.

“However, what many people do not realize is that this is a natural process and something which has happened time and again. We recognize that climate change is a serious problem which is having an impact around the world, and particularly in the Antarctic. However, there is no indication from our research that this particular event is related to climate change.

“We have been tracking the movement of the ice shelf for many years and our modelling indicates that this breakaway is entirely expected. That is why in 2014 we recommended that the Halley Research Station was moved to a new and safe location on the ice shelf.

Chasm 1 in the Brunt Ice Shelf. Credit: Jan De Rydt

“Our field observations and modelling has meant that the station was safely relocated with no danger to the scientists using it and minimal disruption to the research taking place,” Professor Gudmundsson explained.

According to Dr Jan De Rydt, also of Northumbria University, “Once the iceberg breaks away from the Brunt Ice Shelf it is likely to drift towards the west and slowly break up into smaller icebergs.”

It’s not the first time a large ice shelf has broken away in Antarctica, and this one is not the largest one. The Pine Island Ice Shelf in West Antarctica has seen several large sections break off in recent years, and the Larsen C Ice Shelf to the West of the Brunt Ice Shelf has lost a section more than 3,600 square miles due to calving, when ice chunks break from the edge of a glacier in 2017.

As ice shelves are afloat, any icebergs that form as a result of fractures in the ice do not contribute to sea level rise.

Written by Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff Writer