A massive chunk of ice in Antarctica is on the brink of breaking off and is now hanging on to the parent ice shelf by a thin thread just 20 kilometres long, say scientists who found a rift that has grown by another 10 kilometres since the year began.
latest satellite data shows that the rift is likely to lead to one of the largest icebergs ever recorded.
The imagery was acquired on 19th January by European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellites. It shows a 10 kilometres (km) growth of the rift in the larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica, since January 1, bringing its total length to 175 km.
“We can report a further extension of the rift which threatens to calve an iceberg measuring more than 5,000 square km in area from the larsen C Ice Shelf,” said Adrian luckman of Swansea University in the UK.
The rift has continued to grow parallel to the shelf edge, so the iceberg remains attached by 20 kilometres of ice.
When it calves, the larsen C Ice Shelf will lose more than 10 per cent of its area to leave the ice front at its most retreated position ever recorded; this event will fundamentally change the landscape of the Antarctic Peninsula.
We have previously shown that the new configuration will be less stable than it was prior to the rift, and that larsen C may eventually follow the example of its neighbour larsen B, which disintegrated in 2002 following a similar rift-induced calving event.
A long-running rift in the larsen C ice shelf grew suddenly in December and now just 20km of ice is keeping the 5,000 sq km piece from floating away.