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A massive iceberg that broke away from Antarctica last year recently flipped over and narrowly avoided colliding with the Brunt Ice Shelf. Such a crash could have caused the rupture of a new, even more massive iceberg.
Iceberg A-74, which is more than 20 times the size of Manhattan, separated from the Antarctic Brunt Ice Shelf in February 2020, Previously reported live science. Ocean currents have kept the giant beast close to its mother ice shelf for the past six months, according to a statement of the European Space Agency (ESA). Everything was calm, until the winds came.
In early August, strong winds caused the iceberg to turn around the pack ice. Between August 9 and August 18, two polar orbiting satellites that make up the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission captured radar images showing A-74 “lightly brushing” a thin band of ice protruding from the plateau and then moving south.
Related: Photos: Diving under the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica
“The nose-shaped piece of pack ice, which is even larger than the A-74, remains connected to the Brunt pack ice, but barely,” said Mark Drinkwater, head of ESA’s Science Mission Division. , in the press release. “If the iceberg had collided more violently with this part, it could have accelerated the fracture of the remaining ice bridge, causing it to rupture.”
The A-74 is about 490 square miles (1,270 square kilometers), but if it had struck the pack ice enough, it could have released another iceberg with an area of about 656 square miles (1,700 square km). , according to the press release.
Two major cracks in the pack ice, known as “Gouffre 1” (extending north) and “Halloween Crack” (extending east), are separated by a small distance. If they were to meet – for example, if there was a strong impact – an iceberg would break, according to ESA. It’s natural for ice shelves to calve and glaciologists have been tracking small fractures and larger sinkholes for years.
The A-74 broke away along the North Rift Fissure, the third major sinkhole to open in the Brunt Ice Shelf in the past decade, Live Science previously reported. Drinkwater noted that the team will continue to monitor the iceberg and pack ice using Sentinel satellite imagery.
Originally posted on Live Science.
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