A 492-foot-thick, 490-square-kilometer-diameter iceberg broke off the Brunt ice shelf on Friday, according to a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) press release. The section, larger than New York City, split near BAS ’Halley Research Station, which was closed during the season earlier this month.
The break will probably not affect the search station. Investigators say the first indication of childbirth occurred last November when a crack known as the North Rift was activated, which broke into a chasm known as the Stancomb-Wills glacier tongue, nearly 23 miles away .
“The iceberg formed when the crack widened several hundred meters in a few hours on the morning of February 26, freeing it from the rest of the floating ice shelf,” BAS said in a press release .
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BAS’s director of operations, Simon Garrod, described the break-up as a “dynamic situation”. Three cracks have been detected over a decade, including Halloween Crack and Chasm 1.
“Our job now is to closely monitor the situation and assess any possible impact of the current part on the remaining ice shelf,” Garrod said in a press release.
Professor Dame Jane Francis, director of the British Antarctic Survey, said the team has been preparing for years for this event, monitoring the movements and deformations of the Brunt ice shelf even when BAS is not in the its Halley research station. Researchers stay at the station only in summer, as the winter months are dark and cold, making it difficult for them to observe.
Everyone assumes he will make the ice shelf afterwards. “Over the next few weeks or months, the iceberg could move away; or it could get stuck and stay close to the Brunt ice shelf,” Francis added.