Antarctica: London-sized iceberg broken off

The incident has nothing to do with climate change, the scientists said. Two years ago, a giant iceberg of similar size broke off in the same region, the Brunt Ice Shelf. On the ice shelf is the British research station Halley VI, from which glaciologists have been observing the size of huge cracks in the ice for years.

Global warming is accelerating formation
The formation of icebergs is a natural process, which can, however, be accelerated considerably by global warming. Since the 19th century, the Earth’s surface temperature has warmed by an average of one degree Celsius – enough to cause droughts, heat waves and tropical storms.

Global warming is strongly felt in Antarctica. Like many places on the planet, record temperatures were recorded in the region last year. In February 2022, the smallest amount of ice in Antarctica was recorded since satellite observations began 44 years ago.

Scientists are alarmed
Ice shelves are ice shelves floating on the sea that are fed by and still connected to glaciers. Although the breaking up of huge blocks of ice is a natural process, scientists are still alarmed: In the past two decades, more than half of the 12 ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula have either broken up or retreated sharply.

Experts see a connection with global warming. They suspect that meltwater on the surface makes the ice shelves unstable. The ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica contain enough frozen water to raise sea levels by a dozen meters. Many coastal towns and entire islands would become uninhabitable as a result.