"The beginning of the end": Antarctica is divided into giant icebergs that would have inevitable consequences

"We'll say it bluntly: the bird's-eye view over the Pine Island ice floe in Antarctica is a slowly moving train to ruin, of course from a human point of view, in geological time, everything happens give a wink. "

So begins the article "The Antarctic is divided into giant icebergs: the beginning of the end" of National Geographic in which they say that "more than three decades have pbaded since the University of California and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory – JPL for its acronyms in English – from NASA, he was warned that Western Antarctica began to melt. "

"Now, the gigantic block that is about to separate from the pack ice, called Larsen C, may be the precursor to a collapse of the entire continent that, if it happened, would flood a large number of coastal cities the world, "they say.

"Question of weeks"

According to NatGeo, the banks of the Larsen C break up as easily as a sand castle. Adempas, on its surface, are spread over large cracks that share the space with molten lagoons up to 400 square meters.

The crack that is about to separate the Larsen C from the mainland is nearly 200 kilometers long and in some of its areas, its width can reach 2,000 meters. But when it reaches its full extension, it would result in the creation of an iceberg of about 5,000 square kilometers, one of the largest ever recorded.

This block would have an area of ​​about 25 times that of the city of Buenos Aires, which has 203 square kilometers.

Eric Rignot, a professor at the University of California and scientist at NASA, said the recent reversal of the crack reveals his early fracture.

"From my experience, when the gap takes a 90 degree turn, as in this case, the fracture is imminent, it's a matter of weeks," he said.

In the sea of ​​Amudsen, west of Antarctica, it has warmed by more than 0.5 ° C and the rate at which ice melts and breaks has quadrupled . Predictions of temperature increase in the case of the Wedell Sea, adjacent to the Grand C, are at 5 ° C on average.

Inevitable consequences

The importance of the crack that is developing is that the ice that will clear is located in a series of islands. On the contrary, much of the rest of the peninsula's platform rests on a basin whose depth reaches 5000 km, which makes it particularly vulnerable to the rise in the temperature of the ocean, according to La Nación.

Without the Larsen C and because of the sea temperature, the situation is complicated because the pack ice will disarm and break into pieces smaller and smaller. As the phenomenon occurs at an increasing rate, the sea level will rise by more than three meters, flooding entire cities around the world.

In this way, the melting and breaking of the pack ice in this area of ​​Antarctica is a dramatic case. Between 1994 and 2015, the amount of ice was reduced by 10%. Most disturbing is that the removal of Larsen C ice could affect the nearby Thwaites Glacier, which could destabilize most of West Antarctica.

"Now these glaciers are disappearing faster and faster from the surface of the Earth," says Rignot. The scientist thinks that the collapse of the western layer of the Antarctic ice is inevitable.

"It's only a matter of time.The important thing is whether this will happen in a period of 500 years or less than 100. And most importantly, if humanity will be Quick enough to get ready for events, incognito and do it before it's too late, "Rignot condemned.