(ORDO NEWS) — Researchers have shown the first aerial photographs of a massive iceberg that broke away from an Antarctic ice shelf in January.
Designated A81, the London-sized chunk of ice has finally separated from the Antarctica‘s Main Ice Shelf a decade after the first cracks appeared, joining other ice fragments floating in the Weddell Sea.
This is the second giant rift recorded in two years, and while calving is a natural process in this frozen landscape, it can still wreak havoc in the surrounding area.
“An iceberg this size will have a big impact on the ocean ecosystems that support the rich diversity of marine life found in this Antarctic region,” explains environmentalist Geraint Tarling.
“These impacts can be both positive and negative.”
Dynamic aerial photographs taken by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) show how massive this ice block is, looking like an endless sheet even from above.
But what we can see is only a small part of the mass of the iceberg, most of which goes hundreds of meters deep.
BAS moved an entire research station to avoid being hit by a drifting piece of ice sheet.
The Halley Research Station was moved 23 kilometers in 2016 after high-precision GPS instruments and satellite data showed that the chasm along the Brunt Ice Shelf was widening.
The A81 is expected to follow the Antarctic Coastal Current, but the A76a deviates towards some islands. At 3,200 square kilometers, A76a is currently the largest floating iceberg on Earth, twice the size of A81.
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