A country larger than two Prague broke away from Antarctica
They describe the emergence of a giant expert as the next stage in a process observed over many years. Halley Base is located directly on the Brunt Glacier, so British scientists have an overview of its development.
“This is true even when he is not at the polar station, as the movement of ice is monitored by an automated system that sends data to Britain,” said BAS Director Jane Francis.
For the first time, BAS workers first discovered the formation of massive lines in the glacier that floats on Weddel, almost years ago. Signals that a significant case of so-called calving was approaching then began to come last November, when a relatively new crack north of the base began to approach the already existing gap in the ice.
Glaciologist Oliver Marsh shows how a giant kra separated from Brunt’s ice shelf.
During January, this rift extended northeast at a speed of up to one kilometer a day and made its way through a 150-meter-thick floating ice shelf. Kra was formed when the crack widened by several hundred meters in a few hours on the morning of February 26.
Destruction of the polar station is not expected
According to the researchers, the effects of such phenomena are unpredictable, but the formation of a new ice sheet would not necessarily affect the operation of the Halley polar station. “In the coming weeks and months, the ice may be moving away, or it could reach the shallows and stay close to the Brunt Glacier,” Francis said.
Halley Station is just over 20 miles from the fault site – which is why the BBC has been operating under heavy traffic since 2017, when it was so close to a dangerous fall.
Nevertheless, the research station, which also arrives on the 150-meter-thick Brunt ice shelf, is not expected to be affected in any way by this event. This is precisely because it stands in the area of the ice police, which is still connected to the continent, adds Reuters.
In 2017, an even larger ice mass was torn off in Antarctica – a 5800 km long area “fell off” from the local Larsen C glacier3. Later, according to CNN, it split into at least two basic pieces, which then occurred southeast of the uninhabited island of South Georgia, hundreds of kilometers from Antarctica.