A74 is so large that it’s easily seen from space. Scientists say it could float away, or it could wind up remaining close to the ice shelf.Įither way, scientists won’t have any trouble tracking it. It’s also too early to tell what might happen with the iceberg itself.
#Antarctica iceberg crack
Above, a picture of the crack separating A74 from the Brunt Ice Shelf, taken from an airplane. In just a few hours last Friday, the crack opened up until the gap was several hundred yards (meters) wide. It’s not clear yet whether or not that’s likely to happen. Sometimes, when one big chunk of ice breaks off, it causes several others to break off as well. Scientists are now carefully watching the remaining ice shelf. In just a few hours, the crack opened up until the gap was several hundred yards (meters) wide. When A74 finally broke off last Friday, it went quickly. (Source: Hugh Broughton Architects, via Wikimedia Commons.) The station (shown above in 2012) was about 12.5 miles (20 kilometers) away from where A74 broke off. In 2016, the United Kingdom moved its Halley VI Research Station because of two of the cracks in the Brunt Ice Shelf. So far, measurements sent by devices left in the ice near the station show that Halley doesn’t appear to be in danger. There’s no one currently working at the station. In 2016, the United Kingdom moved its Halley VI Research Station because of two of these cracks.Īs it turned out, the station was about 12.5 miles (20 kilometers) away from where A74 broke off. But others have been developing for nearly 10 years. Some of the cracks in the Brunt Ice Shelf that led to the calving were recent. (Source: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2021 The older cracks above are shown in grey. Though calving events are a normal part of the ice shelf in Antarctica, experts say huge calving events like the one that happened on Friday are “quite rare and exciting”. This is a natural process, called “calving”. Antarctica’s largest ice shelf, the Ross Ice Shelf, is about the size of France.įrom time to time, the edges of the ice shelves break off. These are massive sections of ice that spread out over the sea, floating on the water below. When the glaciers reach the sea, they slowly push out beyond the edge of the land, forming huge “ice shelves”. (Source: Alexrk2, via Wikimedia Commons.) In the map above, the ice shelves are the white areas beyond the outline of the continent. Over time, the weight of this ice and snow creates slowly moving rivers of ice called glaciers, which push out toward the sea. As snow falls, it piles up in the center of Antarctica in a huge layer of ice.
Though Antarctica has been losing a lot of ice in recent years because of climate change, this split in the ice is normal and isn’t connected to the climate crisis.Īntarctica, the world’s fifth largest continent, is covered with a layer of ice and snow that’s roughly 1.2 miles (1.9 kilometers) thick. Above, iceberg A74 on February 28th, 2021. Scientists had been expecting the iceberg to break loose for a while. Last Friday, a huge iceberg broke off from an area in Antarctica known as the Brunt Ice Shelf. That’s bigger than New York City and almost as big as London. It’s about 500 feet (150 meters) thick, and covers an area of about 490 square miles (1,270 square kilometers).
The iceberg, known as “A74” is extremely large. It’s not yet clear whether the iceberg will remain in the area or float away.