Trillion tonne iceberg breaks off Antarctica shelf

Antarctic Ice Shelf Sheds Massive Iceberg: Image of the DayMore
Antarctic Ice Shelf Sheds Massive Iceberg: Image of the DayMore
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14 July, 2017

The process, known as calving, occurred in the last few days, when a 5,800-square-kilometer (2,240-square-mile) section broke away.

Our laboratory's extensive research indicates that the calving of the iceberg, the changing surface height of the Larsen C Ice Shelf, and observed summer melt events are consistent with what glaciologists expect to happen as Antarctica responds to natural climate variability.

They said it will change the landscape of the Antarctic peninsula forever, ITV News reported.

The calving event took place sometime between Monday, July 10 and Wednesday, July 12, and was confirmed Project Midas, a group of scientists from Swansea and Aberystwyth Universities in the United Kingdom, using the NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite's Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite instrument, the USA space agency said in a statement.

The widening crack had been developing over the past year.

The iceberg will have no immediate impact on sea level since it was already floating before it calved.

"The iceberg is one of the largest recorded and its future progress is hard to predict", said Adrian Luckman, professor at Swansea University and lead investigator of Project MIDAS, which has been monitoring the ice shelf for years.

Ice shelves, interacting with the dynamic atmospheric and ocean systems, are one element of the larger, complex climate system. He was also of the opinion that the iceberg was unlikely to remain in one single piece but would break up into smaller pieces.

While the researchers said the calving was a "natural event", it put the ice shelf in a vulnerable position. The ice, however, is a part of the Antarctic peninsula that has warmed fast in recent decades.

Professor Adrian Luckman, of Swansea University, said: "We have been anticipating this event for months, and have been surprised how long it took for the rift to break through the final few kilometres of ice".

He also says that while many will want to attribute this event to Global Climate Change, a more important question is whether the changing conditions in the atmosphere or the ocean (because the ice shelf is floating, it can be melted from above or from below) are causing continued retreat that will eventually lead to collapse. "Our models say it will be less stable, but any future collapse remains years or decades away", Luckman said. However, as far as we can tell, this calving event for Larsen C is part of the normal evolution of an ice sheet.

"We need to watch this ice shelf and see if it heals itself or is it the beginning of a more widespread collapse spreading south toward the main body of Antarctica and symptom of something more serious to come", she said.


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