Another large iceberg has broken off from the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The Brocken measures 380 square kilometers, making it almost as large as the area of Vienna.
It is the third demolition in this area in the past four years. But it most likely has nothing to do with climate change, according to a statement from the British Antarctic Survey research station on Tuesday.
The rupture was previously expected because a 14-kilometer-long crack in the ice shelf suddenly appeared a few weeks ago. “This calving has been expected since the Halloween rift eight years ago and reduces the total area of the ice shelf to the smallest extent since monitoring began,” said researcher Oliver Marsh, who discovered the calving using GPS data. Calving is the breaking off of larger ice masses from glaciers that end up in the sea or inland waters. The demolition took place on Monday morning.
Breaking down ice blocks is a natural process
Ice shelves are ice sheets that float on the sea and are fed by and connected to glaciers. Although the breaking off of huge ice blocks is a natural process, scientists are still alarmed: in the past twenty years, more than half of the Antarctic Peninsula’s twelve ice shelves have broken up or retreated significantly.
Source: Krone
I am an experienced and passionate journalist with a strong track record in news website reporting. I specialize in technology coverage, breaking stories on the latest developments and trends from around the world. Working for Today Times Live has given me the opportunity to write thought-provoking pieces that have caught the attention of many readers.
