An enormous iceberg estimated at about one-and-a-half times the size of greater Paris has broken off in Antarctica.
The European Space Agency (ESA) says radar images from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission show the 1270 square kilometre iceberg breaking free from the northern section of Antarctica’s Brunt ice shelf last Friday.
The ESA says glaciologists had been closely monitoring the many cracks and chasms that have formed in the 150 m thick Brunt ice shelf in recent years.
A new crack was spotted in late 2019 on an area of the shelf north of the McDonald Ice Rumples, and it was reported to be “heading towards another large crack” located close to the Stancomb-Wills glacier tongue, the ESA says.
Radar images from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission show the 1270 square kilometre iceberg breaking free from the northern section of Antarctica’s Brunt ice shelf
“Although the calving of the new berg was expected and forecasted some weeks ago, watching such remote events unfold is still captivating,” Mark Drinkwater of the ESA has said.
“Over the following weeks and months, the iceberg could be entrained in the swift south-westerly flowing coastal current, run aground or cause further damage by bumping into the southern Brunt ice shelf,” he said.
“So we will be carefully monitoring the situation using data provided by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission,” he said, referring to the mission run by the ESA.
The iceberg has been informally dubbed “A-74” by glaciologists.
Antarctic icebergs are named from the Antarctic quadrant in which they were originally sighted, then a sequential number. If the iceberg breaks, a sequential letter is then added.
The ESA says the calving does not pose a threat to the presently unmanned British Antarctic Survey’s Halley VI Research station, which was relocated in 2017 after the ice shelf was assessed as unsafe.
