Massive Iceberg Breaks Off Antarctic Brunt Ice Shelf - View From Space
A 1550 square km (963 sq mi.) iceberg, designated A81 broke off Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf.
A time-lapse of the 'calving process' was captured by satellites.
Credit; ESA - European Space Agency
A time-lapse of the 'calving process' was captured by satellites.
Credit; ESA - European Space Agency
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TechTranscript
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00:47 An enormous iceberg has carved from Antarctica's Brunt Ice
00:51 Shelf.
00:54 After several years of desperately clinging on,
00:57 the Berg broke away, as confirmed by satellite data.
01:01 Scientists estimate the new Berg to be around 1,550 square
01:06 kilometers.
01:08 That's the size of greater London,
01:10 or five times the size of Malta.
01:14 The Brunt Ice Shelf borders the Coatsland Coast
01:17 in the Weddell Sea sector of Antarctica.
01:21 Glaciologists have monitored the thick Brunt Ice Shelf
01:24 for years.
01:24 The new Berg carved when the crack known as Chasm 1
01:31 split northwards, severing the west part of the ice shelf.
01:34 It was only a matter of time before it
01:39 would meet the Halloween crack.
01:41 First spotted on, you guessed it, Halloween.
01:45 After several years on watch for Brunt Iceberg carving,
01:48 we finally witnessed the long-awaited separation
01:51 of the western Brunt Ice Shelf as Iceberg A81.
01:54 Routine monitoring from satellites
01:58 offers unparalleled views of events
02:00 happening in remote regions.
02:04 The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission
02:06 carries radar, which returns images
02:08 regardless of day or night.
02:09 This allows us year-round viewing,
02:14 which is especially important through the long, dark winter
02:17 months.
02:18 The British Antarctic Survey's Halley 6 Research Station,
02:25 where glaciologists have been monitoring
02:27 the behavior of the ice shelf, was relocated in 2017
02:32 to a more secure location after the ice shelf was deemed unsafe.
02:37 The station has remained unaffected
02:39 by the carving event.
02:41 There are currently 21 staff working at the station
02:44 to keep scientific operations running through winter.
02:49 It is now around 20 kilometers from the line of rupture.
02:52 Thanks to the Copernicus Sentinel satellites,
02:58 together with in-situ and airborne measurements made
03:01 by the British Antarctic Survey, the safety of the Halley base
03:04 has been preserved.
03:07 In February 2021, a giant berg broke off
03:10 from the northern section of Brunt.
03:12 Spotted by Sentinel-1, it has already
03:19 drifted away from the Brunt ice shelf into the Weddell Sea.
03:23 So what happens now?
03:25 The carving of icebergs can speed up the flow of ice
03:28 from an ice shelf.
03:29 If Brunt now experiences an acceleration,
03:32 it could influence the behavior of other cracks in the area.
03:37 The carving and separation of the latest iceberg, A81,
03:41 now focuses attention back onto the Halloween crack, whose
03:44 extension could contribute to further destabilization
03:47 of the remaining eastern portion of the Brunt ice shelf.
03:51 We will continue using the Copernicus Sentinel satellites
03:54 to closely monitor the behavior and stability of the remaining
03:57 Brunt ice shelf.
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