An iceberg with a British base emerges

United Kingdom. Moving is always a puzzle. And that is what they suffer in the white desert of Antarctica. It is because a large part of the Brunt ice floe, where the Halley Research Station is located in the United Kingdom, is falling apart and becoming a large iceberg adrift. This is why Europeans will have to move all their facilities to a safer place.

The bankruptcy process began several years ago and is approaching its final phase, according to evidence obtained by glaciologists at the University of Northumbria (England). Anticipating that it is in the middle of a floating island, the research station will have to move to a safer place on the ice floe. By the end of 2017, they had already transferred staff to avoid risks.

The iceberg, which extends over more than 1,500 square kilometers, is expected to detach from the Brunt Sea Ice in the coming months. But already in 2012, a satellite had revealed the first signs of movement of an abyss on the inactive pack ice for at least 35 years. However, glaciologists have already determined that crack velocity will continue to open and grow. The possibility that the crack increases and threatens the station is what forced its relocation.

The Halley Base is located specifically in the Brunt Ice Shelf area, approximately 1,400 kilometers from the South Pole. Inside, there were 70 scientists in summer and 16 on average in winter. His main activity was atmospheric research as well as geology and glaciology. In 1985, his technicians detected the hole in the ozone layer.

The complex consists of a red central module, designed for common and recreational activities, while the blue modules are laboratories, offices, generators, an observation platform and other facilities. The modules have been packaged to withstand typical winds of up to 100 kilometers at the time and temperatures between 30 degrees below zero and 55 degrees below zero.

At present, there are no details on the transfer of structures, but on the causes that led to the formation of the iceberg that forced their expulsion. This new research, published in The Cryosphere, has determined that this phenomenon was not related to the global warming process that affects the Antarctic ice, but to a natural cyclical phenomenon on this ice shelf that occurs in Canada. is already produced in the past.

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