Brunt Ice Shelf Calving Impending: Will Release Iceberg 2X Size of Manhattan
Sorry, for some reason the graphics are showing up incomplete . . .
A chunk of ice more than twice the size of New York’s Manhattan could break off from Antarctica’s Brunt Ice shelf essentially at any moment.
Two large cracks in the shelf have been inching further open over the past few years. When they finally intersect, a berg about 660 square miles wide and almost 500 feet thick will be released into the ocean—where it will eventually melt, joining its brethren in adding more water to the world’s oceans and pushing global sea levels a tiny bit higher.
It’s no surprise that the giant berg would eventually break off: The Brunt Ice Shelf is one of the most carefully monitored ice tongues in the world, because it’s the site of the Halley Research Station, a major center for the British Antarctic Survey’s research activities in the region. But no one knows exactly when the berg will dislodge.
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The first fault line on the Brunt Ice Shelf, called Chasm 1, has been in place for over 35 years (glaciologists call breaks in the ice sheet that extend all the way from surface to the ocean below “chasms,” while shallower faults are called “cracks” or “crevasses”). It remained relatively stable until 2012, when surveyors noticed that it starting to grow again, creeping across the wide tongue of ice that protruded out over the ocean. Now, it’s extending outward in fits and starts, growing by a few hundred meters each week, on average.
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https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/03/huge-chunk-brunt-ice-break-off-antarctica/
