Unless we do something soon, many of us will be living underwater. USNIC has been compiling the latitude, longitude, and general size of icebergs seen during the routine monitoring of sea ice conditions around the Antarctic continent since 1978 and sharing them with the public. That sea level rise puts hundreds of millions of people at risk. Satellite imagery confirms a gigantic iceberg, around five times the size of Malta, has finally calved from Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf. Applications Giant iceberg breaks away from Antarctic ice shelf 13479 views 160 likes ESA / Applications / Observing the Earth / Copernicus Satellite imagery confirms an enormous iceberg, around five times the size of Malta, has finally calved from Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf. Ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet causes sea levels to rise by about a hundredth of an inch per year, and this number is only increasing with time. While this may not happen for decades, the smaller collapses like the one last month do have an effect. If the entire ice sheet collapses, as some models predict, it could raise sea levels by around four feet. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet, of which Pine Island is a part, is believed to be highly unstable, and a large collapse in one area could trigger more collapses in others. Ultimately, this subsurface melting will trigger a chain reaction that risks sending the entire region into the sea. 8 References Largest iceberg (current) Fahy, Claire (). 6 By day 148, 7 the iceberg consisted of three fragments, A-76a, A-76b, and A-76c. The new iceberg was first spotted by Keith Makinson, a polar oceanographer with the British Antarctic Survey in May 2021. Subsurface melting can destabilize large sections of ice and split them from the rest of the glacier. The size at calving was an estimated 4,320 km 2 (1,670 sq mi). Since the 1990s, warming ocean water has caused increased melting both at the surface and, more dangerously, below the water. Pine Island is the fastest melting region in Antarctica, and responsible for about a quarter of its total ice loss. In a statement, Mark Belchier, the director of Fisheries and Environment for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, warned that the new iceberg chunks could be a "major" concern for vessels operating in the region as the mini bergs, which have yet to be individually named, continue to break apart.Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play It's likely that A-76A will also inject large amounts of freshwater into the nearby ocean, which could disrupt marine food webs. Thwaites Glacier is a massive chunk of ice around the same size as the state of. Antarcticas melting Doomsday glacier could raise sea levels by 10 feet, scientists say - ABC News Antarcticas melting Doomsday glacier could raise sea levels by 10 feet, scientists say The loss of the Thwaites glacier could destabilize western Antarctica. Credit: ESA European Space Agency The new iceberg is anticipated to be named A-81 with the smaller piece to the north likely identified as either A-81A or A-82. Palmer as it sits in front of Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica. The iceberg, measuring 1550 sq km, detached from the 150 m-thick ice shelf a decade after scientists first spotted massive cracks in the shelf. By the time A-68A had fully melted away in mid 2021, scientists estimated it had dumped around 1 trillion tons (900 million metric tons) of freshwater into the ocean, the majority of which was shed near South Georgia. The researcher onboard the R/V Nathaniel B. The ASCAT senors operate at C-Band (5.255 GHz) at vertical polarization only. Friction and slip are found to be highly variable in space. But the hefty berg narrowly missed the island before being ripped in half by ocean currents and later disintegrating into an "alphabet soup" of smaller named icebergs.Ī-76A was never on a direct collision course with South Georgia, but it could still end up impacting the nearby marine ecosystem. Since then two other ASCATs have been launched. News By Yasemin Saplakoglu published 26 February 2021 A giant iceberg, more than 20 times the size of Manhattan, just split off from Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf. Icequake observations were combined with an analytical friction model to measure friction and slip at the bed of an Antarctic ice stream. The world's previous largest iceberg, A-68A, also crumbled near South Georgia in December 2020 after being slingshotted through the Drake Passage.Īt the time, conservationists were concerned that the Delaware-size A-68A could end up colliding with South Georgia, which would have put the island's diverse marine ecosystem at risk of collapse. (Image credit: Lauren Dauphin/NASA Earth Observatory) NASA's Terra satellite captures an image of A-76A, in the Drake Passage near Antarctica on Oct.
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