01.10.2019, 16:22
Iceberg Weighing 315 Billion Tons Broke off the Coast of Antarctica
Source: OREANDA-NEWS
OREANDA-NEWS. An iceberg weighing 315 billion tons broke off the Amery ice shelf in East Antarctica. The Scripps Institute of Oceanography reports on Twitter. The iceberg, officially named D-28, broke away from the glacier on September 26. Its size is 1636 square meters, or 50 km per 30 km, reveals the details of the Antarctic division of the Australian Ministry of the Environment. According to it, this is the first case of the separation of an iceberg of this size from the Amery ice shelf since 1963. Then an iceberg with an area of 9 thousand square meters broke away from the glacier.
“We first noticed a crack on the front of the ice shelf in the early 2000s and predicted that a large iceberg would break off between 2010 and 2015”, commented a professor at the Scripps Institute. Scientists observing the glacier noted that they didn't associate the event with climate change, as icebergs split off periodically, following a cycle of 60–70 years. Australian Ministry of the Environment experts noted that ice loss could affect the melting of the ocean under the remaining ice shelf and the speed at which ice slides from the continent to the sea.
Professor Adrian Luckman, who runs the MIDAS project, believes that the iceberg’s future behavior is hard to predict. According to him, an iceberg can remain a large iceberg, and can continue to split up into smaller fragments.
In July 2017, an iceberg weighing 1 trillion tons and an area of 5800 square meters broke off in Antarctica from the giant ice shelf. Scientists noted that this is one of the largest icebergs in the history of observations. Its thickness reaches 200 meters, and foreign publications compare its area with the size of Delaware. On the iceberg square could accommodate two Luxembourgs.
“We first noticed a crack on the front of the ice shelf in the early 2000s and predicted that a large iceberg would break off between 2010 and 2015”, commented a professor at the Scripps Institute. Scientists observing the glacier noted that they didn't associate the event with climate change, as icebergs split off periodically, following a cycle of 60–70 years. Australian Ministry of the Environment experts noted that ice loss could affect the melting of the ocean under the remaining ice shelf and the speed at which ice slides from the continent to the sea.
Professor Adrian Luckman, who runs the MIDAS project, believes that the iceberg’s future behavior is hard to predict. According to him, an iceberg can remain a large iceberg, and can continue to split up into smaller fragments.
In July 2017, an iceberg weighing 1 trillion tons and an area of 5800 square meters broke off in Antarctica from the giant ice shelf. Scientists noted that this is one of the largest icebergs in the history of observations. Its thickness reaches 200 meters, and foreign publications compare its area with the size of Delaware. On the iceberg square could accommodate two Luxembourgs.
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