Indeed a piece of shocking news – an iceberg that was almost the size of Greater London broke off Antarctica’s Brunt Ice shelf on Sunday, January 22, 2023.
🚨An iceberg the size of London has split off Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf.pic.twitter.com/WxVfiCwi3C
— Pubity (@PubityIG) January 25, 2023
According to a BBC report, the iceberg has a thickness of 490 feet and an area of 600 square miles and has broken near Britain’s Halley research station where the British scientists were working.
This massive iceberg detached from a 150-meter-thick Brunt Ice Shelf. It split had a huge crack that has been growing through the ice shelf since 2012. Professor Dominic Hodgson a glaciologist for British Antarctic Survey explained that such cracks are common around the edges of Antarctica and are not linked to climate change. This is the second iceberg to break off in two years, as a massive crack called Chasm-1 extends through the Brunt ice shelf. According to scientists, cracks had been developing over the last few years across the entire, nearly 500-foot thick ice shelf. GPS sensors began to pick up movement at Chasm-1 between 7 pm to 8 pm on Sunday when it extended to roughly 40 miles across the entire shelf.
Also, the research station where 21 people worked remains unaffected by the recent events as it is 12 miles away from the crack. The new iceberg is said to follow the path of the A74 iceberg which departed in nearly 2021. The second iceberg will be named later by the US National ice center.
According to British Antarctic Survey, “The good news is that the split is a natural process known as ‘calving’ and is not linked to climate change.”
