Antarctica: an iceberg with a British base is falling – 06/04/2019

Moving is always a puzzle. Both in everyday life as we know it, as well as 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 in the process of detach and become a great iceberg drifting. This is why Europeans will have to move all their facilities to a safer place.

The process of bankruptcy of the pack ice began several years ago and is now 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.

Look also

We expect the iceberg, which measures more than 1500 square kilometers, detach the Brunt Sea Ice in just a few months. But it was already in 2012 that a satellite revealed the first signs movement of an abyss on 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.

Look also

Clarin Bulletins

What happened today? We tell you the most important news of the day and what will happen tomorrow when you get up

Monday to Friday afternoon.

There is still no detail on the movement of structures, but on the causes that led to the formation of the iceberg that forced its ouster. This new research published in The Cryosphere determined that this phenomenon was not related to the global warming process that took the Antarctic ice, but cyclic natural in this pack ice this has already happened in the past.

AS