[ad_1]
A year after the demolition of a gigantic iceberg from the Antarctic Larsen Ice Shelf, the Colossus barely moved from the place.
"It did not come very far because it did not do much this 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 previously several small icebergs were stranded. "There, however, it relaxes and continues to move with the current and the tides," said Jansen.
Up to 175 kilometers long
Up to now, the iceberg has moved about 50 kilometers from the space that it had left behind him on the ice shelf.This may take a long time until he finally gets away. "Maybe he'll be splitting up in the next Antarctic summer. Sooner or later, it will drift north.
The Tafeleisberg, to which the scientist gave the designation A68, was completed between 10 and 12 July 2017. It is one of the largest icebergs that researchers have recorded in recent decades.
At that time he 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 has not changed much," said Jansen
Seven ice wells disintegrate
Researchers feared that such accidents could destroy the entire ice shelf of Larsen in the long run. Ice shelves are floating ice sheets that are fed by glaciers and are still connected to them.
During the past 20 years, seven ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula have been severely decomposed, including Larsen A and Larsen B. As a result, ice in some glaciers is flowing freely in the water, contributing to at sea level rise.
For now, the remaining Larsen C ice shelf seems 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 Inland 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 plateau
. 39; NGO
The environmental organization Greenpeace now promotes the protection of Antarctica in about 70 cities in Germany. The ecosystem is still intact and the biodiversity is high, said Detlef Ramisch of Greenpeace Wednesday on the action.
Greenpeace wants to use the campaign to collect signatures to support a European Union bid for the CCAMLR Antarctic Commission. The Commission will decide in October on a possible new protected area in the Weddell Sea. According to Greenpeace data, with 1.8 million square kilometers, the Weddell Antarctic Sea is almost five times larger than Germany and the 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. (SDA)
Published 04.07.2018 | Updated at 17:46
[ad_2]
Source link
