One year after the demolition: a gigantic iceberg is blocked

The Larsen C ice shelf in the Antarctic, from which came out the gigantic iceberg. Researchers observe larger cracks in the remaining ice shelf. (Photo of February 2017) (Photo: KEYSTONE / AP British Antarctic Survey)

(nda / dpa)

"It did not go very far because of the sea ice and the current of the Past year Daniela Jansen, glaciologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research at Bremerhaven

On the north side, it seems to have run on a shoal where several small icebergs s'. were stranded before. "There, however, he relaxes and continues to move with the current and the tides," said Jansen.

Up to now, the iceberg has moved from about 50 kilometers from the space that he left behind on the ice platform.This may take a long time until it is overheated. finally move away. "Maybe it will separate in the next Antarctic summer. Sooner or later, it will drift north.

One of the largest icebergs

The Tafeleisberg, to which the scientist gave the designation A68, had come to an end between July 10 and 12, 2017. It is the only one of its kind. one of the largest icebergs that researchers have recorded in recent decades.

At that time, it was 175 miles long and 50 kilometers wide. During this time, layers of ice broke off at the edge of the A68. This is shown by satellite and radar images. "The shape of the iceberg, however, has not changed much," Jansen said.

The researchers feared that such demolitions could ultimately destroy the entire Larsen Ice Shelf. Ice shelves are floating ice sheets that are fed by glaciers and are still connected to them.

Over the last 20 years, seven ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula have been severely decomposed, including Larsen A and Larsen B. As a result, ice from some glaciers is flowing into the water, contributing to in the sea level rise.

In the ice shelf

At present, the Larsen C ice platform remains relatively stable, Jansen said. "But there are some major cracks that we continue to observe."

The Larsen Ice Shelf is located in the Weddell Sea. There, the ice of the interior glacier is in part hundreds of kilometers from the sea. About 665,000 square kilometers of the Weddell Sea are covered by this frozen ice-water platform.

The environmental organization Greenpeace now promotes Antarctic protection in about 70 German cities. In the Weddell Sea in Antarctica, the ecosystem is still intact and the biodiversity high, said Detlef Ramisch of Greenpeace Wednesday on the action

Support for the EU application

Greenpeace wants to use the campaign to collect signatures to support a motion of the European Union CCAMLR Antarctic Commission. The Commission will decide in October on a possible new protected area in the Weddell Sea. According to Greenpeace data, the Antarctic Weddell Sea is 1.8 million square kilometers, almost five times larger than Germany and a haven for whales, penguins, seals and albatrosses .

In 2016, the Antarctic Commission had already declared the Ross Sea South Pole Protected Area. The marine reserve is 1.6 million square kilometers, making it the largest in the world. In about 72% of the area, a kind of taboo area, commercial fishing is prohibited. In other areas, fishing restricted to the Antarctic giant or krill will be allowed.