An iceberg measuring 492 feet thick and 490 square miles in diameter separated from Brunt’s ice shelf on Friday, according to a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) press release. The section, measuring larger than New York City, cleaved near BAS’s Halley Research Station, which closed for the season earlier this month.
The research station is unlikely to be affected by the interval. The researchers say the first indication of childbirth came last November, when a crevice known as the North Rift became active, breaking into an abyss known as the Stancomb-Wills Glacier Tongue, almost 23 kilometers away.
“The iceberg formed when the crack widened several hundred meters in a few hours on the morning of February 26, freeing it from the rest of the floating ice shelf,” noted BAS in a press release.
AvanKINTS
BAS’s Director of Operations, Simon Garrod, called the break “a dynamic situation”. Three cracks have been detected over a decade, including Halloween Crack and Chasm 1.
“Our job now is to keep an eye on the situation and assess any potential impact of the current birth on the remaining ice shelf,” said Garrod in a press release.
Professor Dame Jane Francis, director of the British Antarctic Survey, said the team had been preparing for such an event for years, monitoring the movements and deformations of Brunt’s ice shelf, even when BAS is not at its Halley research station. Researchers stay at the station only in the summer, as the winter months are dark and cold, making observation difficult.
No one knows what the ice shelf will do next. “In the coming weeks or months, the iceberg may move away; or it may run aground and remain close to Brunt’s ice shelf,” added Francis.