A gigantic iceberg of more than 1,270 square kilometers has broken off from Antarctica

A huge iceberg of 1,270 square kilometers of the Brunt Ice Shelf he had finished detaching himself from Antarctica on Friday. The iceberg was near a British science station, so around 12 people had to be evacuated.

The iceberg has come off an ice shelf south of the Wedell Sea, in Antarctica, so that its position will be monitored to support and plan the next Antarctic summer campaign, the Falklands, Antarctic and South Atlantic Secretariat reported today.

The detachment of the gigantic iceberg, of which process started in 2109 and ended on Friday, It was detected by specialists from the Argentine Antarctic Institute thanks to images from the Argentinian satellite Saocom 1A, detailed the secretariat.

The iceberg broke away from the Brunt pack ice, which is formed “by a floating mass of ice, which is the continuation in the ocean of glaciers that come from the continent, in this case from Antarctica”, explained the secretariat.

The agency stressed that this barrier “still has other significant cracks that have appeared in recent years that will cause other icebergs to fall in the future, so the surveillance does not stop at the detachment of this iceberg.”

“As long as it is not subjected to the action of the oceans and is in very low temperature maritime areas, the iceberg can remain without melting for many years,” the secretariat said, adding that it is important to ‘analyze these large iceberg detachment processes “to improve knowledge of the dynamics of Antarctic ice shelves”.

In the zone “only a few boats sail in this southern and remote region; the Argentine logistical and scientific campaign has already accessed this area during the last days of January and will not do so again until next summer, ”he declared.

“Therefore, the task ahead is to monitor the positions of the iceberg (and others that might come off) to plan and support the navigation of the next summer campaign in Antarctica,” the secretariat said.

He said that in addition to logistics ships, ships that navigate Antarctic waters and request information from Argentine satellites “can also benefit from these images as a tool to facilitate their navigation.”

In recent years, Argentina has put into orbit two satellites developed in the country, SAOCOM 1A and SAOCOM 1B of the National Commission for Space Activities (CONAE).

Source: Telam

AFG