What size did the iceberg break off? Iceberg in the ocean: what awaits humanity after the megaldine breaks off. Spotted from space
Agence France-Presse, citing scientists who have been monitoring a growing crack in the ice for months, reports that part of Antarctica's largest ice shelf, the western Larsen C glacier, has separated, forming one of the largest icebergs on record.
The University of Swansea (Wales) reported that the iceberg calved between Monday and Wednesday (that is, between July 10 and 12), when part of the Larsen C glacier, whose area is 5.8 thousand square kilometers, finally separated.
It should be noted that scientists previously warned that if the iceberg breaks away, this will entail the loss of about a tenth of the entire glacier.
Initially, the Larsen Glacier consisted of three parts - Larsen A, B and C. On the Antarctic Peninsula, temperature indicators over the past five decades have increased by 2.5 degrees Celsius. Climate change led to the fact that Larsen A, whose area was four thousand kilometers, was completely destroyed in 1995. An iceberg, whose area reached about three thousand square kilometers, separated from the Larsen B glacier in the early 2000s. In the winter of 2016, the NAA received photographs from airplanes, which clearly showed that a large crack had formed in the third glacier, the length of which was 112 kilometers, the width was about one hundred meters, and the depth was approximately 500 meters. Throughout 2017, it rapidly increased and by the beginning of July its length was already 200 kilometers. Here the mass of ice can be about a trillion tons.
According to Adrian Luckman of Swansea University, who led the research in Antarctica, scientists cannot predict what might happen to the iceberg in the future. It may remain intact, but it is more likely that it will crack. Some of the debris may remain in the same area for decades, while some may float into warmer waters.
In addition, the scientist also noted that there is no unity among researchers regarding the fate of the shelf. Some experts are convinced that it will gradually increase, others, on the contrary, are confident that new icebergs will continue to separate from it, and ultimately this will lead to its complete destruction.
Scientists from Britain believe that in the future the shelf will become less stable, but this process will take many years in any case.
According to glaciologist Martin O'Leary, a member of the research team, the new iceberg will not provoke an immediate rise in sea levels, but if the shelf continues to decrease, it could cause glaciers to wash away the shores on their way to the ocean . Over time, this ice may affect sea levels, although only slightly.
Speaking about the reasons for the appearance of the giant iceberg, Alexey Kokorin, head of the Russian climate program WWF, pointed out that the iceberg broke off from the ice shelf because it was being washed away from the bottom by ocean waters. Scientists note that water temperatures in the surface layer of the ocean, which is hundreds of meters deep, have increased slightly. This is what global warming is.
As the scientist notes, at present it is too early to say that an iceberg, even a gigantic one, can affect the rise in water levels in the World Ocean. Currently, this level is rising by three millimeters every year. However, it can still make some contribution to the rise in level and the cooling process of the ocean.
According to Vasily Smolyanitsky, head of the world sea ice data center (Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute), an iceberg of gigantic size does not pose a threat to shipping, since it will drift in the waters of the Southern Ocean for a long time. However, the process of melting will take decades.
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A piece of ice roughly the size of Wales or Estonia, or equivalently four times the size of London, has broken away from Antarctica. After several months of hanging by a thread, a giant block finally broke away from a glacier in West Antarctica.
Its area is approximately six thousand square kilometers, and experts estimate the mass of the iceberg to be approximately one billion tons. The iceberg was named "A68". It is the largest iceberg on record.
Due to the separation of part of the continent, the Antarctic shelf has shrunk by ten percent, and meltwater from the iceberg now threatens to raise global sea levels by ten centimeters. The fact that a tenth of the Larsen Glacier separated is an event of planetary scale. According to preliminary estimates, the iceberg is moving towards the Atlantic. Scientists believe that the scale of its impact on the environment will depend on the trajectory along which the ice block will now move.
Experts say: “Sooner or later this was bound to happen,” as the observed crack at Larsen C has been steadily growing over the years.
Initially, the Larsen Glacier consisted of three parts: Larsen A, Larsen B and Larsen C. In 1995, part of the Larsen A continent, with an area of four thousand square kilometers, was completely destroyed. At the beginning of 2000, a huge piece of more than three thousand square kilometers broke off from Larsen B. And now Larsen S has lost a significant part of it. The collapse of the glacier began in 2014.
We have already written several times about the increase in the crack on Larsen S:
“One of the most important international problems of the 21st century is global climate change. Of particular concern is the overall rapid increase in the dynamics of disasters, which has been observed in recent decades.”
Quote from the report of the ALLATRA SCIENCE community of scientists « » .
Iceberg calving reduces the area of the ice shelf by about 12%, scientists note.
While the bulk of the ice shelf will renew itself naturally, the researchers believe changes in its configuration and area could eventually cause Larsen C to "follow the example" of its neighbor, Larsen B, which disintegrated in 2002. seven years after a 3,500 square meter iceberg broke off. km.
Professor Adrian Luckman, who leads the MIDAS project, believes that the further behavior of the iceberg is difficult to predict. According to him, the iceberg may remain a large iceberg, or it may continue to break up into smaller fragments.
“Individual ice fragments may remain in the area for decades, and parts of the iceberg may drift north into warmer waters,” Luckman said.
Researchers at Swansea University do not rule out that the current and direction of the winds could lead to the movement of the glacier, which could pose a hazard to shipping.
The head of the Russian Antarctic Expedition, Valery Lukin, told RBC that there are no shipping routes on the iceberg’s path. According to him, in the area of the eastern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, not a single country in the Antarctic community has stations, so it is also impossible to talk about a potential danger for expedition ships.
“The iceberg has entered the Weddell Sea, which is covered with ice, and it will remain there for several more years, after which it will break into several parts. This iceberg does not pose any danger to navigation,” Lukin said. He also noted that the iceberg with an area of 6,000 square meters. km, which broke off from a glacier in Antarctica, “is far from the largest iceberg discovered within Antarctic waters.”
The Larsen Ice Shelf is named after Norwegian captain Carl Larsen, who discovered it in 1893. It consisted of three large glaciers, which received the letters A, B and C. To date, of the three glaciers, only Larsen S has survived.
According to Swansea University professor and head of the MIDAS Antarctic project Adrian Luckman, a huge iceberg with an area of 5,800 sq. km, 350 m thick and weighing more than 1 trillion tons, which broke off from Antarctica on July 12, can last for several decades.
Professor Adrian Luckman stated:
"This iceberg is one of the largest in history, and its future is difficult to predict. It may remain in one piece, but it is more likely that it will break up into fragments. Some of the ice may remain in the area for decades, other parts may drift north, to warmer waters".
Scientists plan to monitor the movement of the broken iceberg. According to scientists, it provides the connection of all the ice shelves of Antarctica; later they may begin to separate from the ice continent.
The main reason for the destruction of the Antarctic ice sheet is the flooding of its base by warm ocean water.
"What happened today is a consequence of natural causes. We know nothing about the possible impact of human-induced global warming on these processes. However, the ice shelves now find themselves in a very precarious position. The Antarctic ice has now retreated to its furthest distance in recorded history. We will be monitoring very closely for potential instability on all ice shelves.", said Swansea University glaciologist Martin O'Leary.
Swansea University staff suggest that the new iceberg will not lead to a rise in sea levels and will not be associated with global warming.
If ice shelves stop holding back the flow of the inner parts of Antarctica's glaciers into the ocean, then the level of the world's oceans could rise by 10 cm, and this is a significant amount by scientific standards.
Leading researcher at the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Candidate of Geographical Sciences Andrei Glazovsky gave an interview to Sputnik radio and explained the ongoing processes in Antarctica:
“This is not the fault of global warming, this is a natural process: Antarctica is losing its mass this way. Snow falls on the continent, accumulates in the form of a gigantic mass - this is the ice sheet of Antarctica, and then such large pieces break off from it, mostly icebergs. Now Antarctica is in In general, it loses a little - and not “plus or minus”, but absolutely loses - about 150 cubic kilometers in pure form. That is, more flows out of it than comes in. By the way, this is not the largest iceberg in Antarctica, it is one of the ten largest. There were much more icebergs that were observed - there was a “piece” of about 11 thousand square kilometers in 2000.”, - said Andrey Glazovsky.
According to the scientist, the iceberg will not affect the level of the World Ocean, but may create problems for shipping:
“It’s not like the iceberg floated somewhere, it separated from the floating plate and became independent. Then its fate is this: it will slowly crawl away from Antarctica, go north. Then it can go to an area where shipping is observed, and there they may there will be trouble. Now it’s difficult to say where it will go. There is a circular current, and it can spin a little and go further. I’ll tell you right away: it will not affect the level of the World Ocean, because it broke away from the floating plate. But if it crawled on. continent, then the ocean level would rise by about three millimeters. This is very decent. Now the level of the World Ocean is rising by about three millimeters per year, but this is the contribution of all the glaciers of Antarctica and Greenland.", - explained Andrei Glazovsky.
It is difficult to predict where the iceberg will move; at the moment it has sailed 13 kilometers from the continent.
Since it became dangerous to be on the glacier, scientists left it in the spring of 2017. And then they will watch the iceberg from space
Melting Antarctica:
Scientists have been monitoring the stability of this ice shelf for several years. Thomas Zurbuchen, a Swiss-American astrophysicist who has been appointed Deputy Administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate since October 2016, published an image of the new iceberg on July 12, 2017, taken by NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites:
The blue color represents a warm surface - this is seen between a new iceberg and an ice shelf, as well as in areas of open ocean and where the water is covered with thin ice. Lighter blue tones indicate pristine or thicker ice.
“A careful analysis of the increase in the number of natural disasters, extreme weather events around the world, as well as statistical indicators of space and geophysical parameters in recent years has shown an alarming trend towards a significant increase in a short period of time. These data indicate that the assumptions made by a number of scientists that the Earth’s climate change over the course of 100 years or more will be gradual are incorrect, since in fact this process is happening much more dynamically.These are processes that humanity is currently unable to influence, so their consequences, possible risks and difficulties for people in connection with future events on Earth cannot be underestimated; we need to prepare for these events ». Quote from d salary of the ALLATRA SCIENCE community of scientists« » .
Throughout history. Its weight is about a trillion tons, reports MIR 24 TV channel correspondent Marina Razbegaeva.
Its area is approximately equal to Palestine, its weight is a trillion tons. This is one of the largest icebergs that has ever broken off from Antarctica. It carries a mass of frozen water twice the size of Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes of North America. If it melts, the level of the world's seas is guaranteed to change.
“Antarctica has a lot of ice. If large glaciers melt, the world's sea levels will rise. This is inevitable,” says geophysicist Edward King (UK).
Scientists have been waiting for this event for a long time - for several months they continuously monitored the growing crack on the Larsen Ice Shelf.
“There are a lot of changes on the Antarctic Peninsula. Where the Larsen Glacier is located, temperatures have risen much faster than in the rest of Antarctica. Therefore, this place needs to be monitored, regularly monitored from satellites in order to understand what is happening there,” said Edward King.
Experts are not yet ready to say how it will behave next. Most likely, it will split into several smaller ones. These pieces can remain in place for decades, or they can drift north into warmer waters.
“If you look at all the ice in Antarctica, you can roughly imagine what would happen to the world's oceans if it melted. We are not saying that it will happen tomorrow or next year. This process will take a long time - but it has already begun,” warns the geophysicist.
While scientists are vying with each other about the fate of the planet, for Internet users this is just a new reason for jokes.
An iceberg that broke off from Antarctica will become part of Russia on March 18, 2018. Russian hackers hacked the glacier? And your iceberg has come unstuck. An iceberg the size of your ex has broken off from a glacier in Antarctica.
Meanwhile, another iceberg on the nearby Brunt Glacier is threatening to break off. The giant fault appeared a long time ago, but six months ago it suddenly began to grow at tremendous speed. The British polar station was urgently evacuated from there. According to some scientists, it is no longer possible to stop the process of melting glaciers. This will lead to the most unexpected consequences.
“A huge amount of methane is concentrated in the world’s oceans. Warming releases it. That is, heating masses of water could theoretically lead to the fact that our atmosphere could become composed of methane,” noted ecologist Pavel Sukhonin.
Experts attribute such splits to global warming and climate change. Over the past half century, temperatures in Antarctica have increased by 2.5 degrees Celsius.
