experts surprised
Iceberg broken off in East Antarctica – the size of the city of Rome
The approximately 1200 square kilometer iceberg is said to have lost its connection to the mainland in mid-March (archive photo)
© Kyodo / DPA
East Antarctica is actually considered to be dry, windy and stable. Now an iceberg that was once about the size of the city of Rome has come loose. That surprises even experts.
A huge iceberg has broken off in eastern Antarctica. The approximately 1200 square kilometers – roughly the size of the city of Rome – the colossus is said to have lost its connection to the mainland in mid-March, as the “Guardian” reported on Friday, citing polar researchers. The US National Ice Center had previously confirmed that the iceberg previously known as the Conger Ice Shelf had detached. An ice shelf is a large sheet of ice that floats on the sea but is connected to the mainland.
NASA expert Catherine Colello Walker described the event in The Guardian as “one of the most significant crashes in Antarctica since the early 2000s.” Although the researcher does not expect a major impact, she warned: “It is a sign of what may be coming.”
“Will see more ice shelves break off”
The Conger Ice Shelf has been shrinking since the middle of the first decade after the turn of the millennium, but only very gradually – it only picked up significantly in early 2020, Walker said. On March 4th of this year, the surface of the iceberg was only half the size it was in January. According to satellite data, the colossus started moving shortly afterwards.
Expert Matt King, who heads an Antarctic research center in Australia, doesn’t think ice shelf break-off will lead to a sharp rise in sea levels because the glacier behind it is small. But: “We will see more ice shelves break off in view of global warming,” King told the “Guardian”. “We will see huge icebergs, much larger than this one, breaking off that are currently holding back large masses of ice – enough to raise global sea levels significantly.”
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“Unprecedented heat” in Antarctica
According to the World Weather Organization (WMO), an “extraordinary and unprecedented heat” is currently being observed in eastern Antarctica. On March 18, minus 12.2 degrees were measured at the Concordia research station, it said this week. That’s 40 degrees warmer than the region’s average for this time of year, and 20 degrees warmer than the previous record in March.
The whole region is actually considered the driest, windiest and coldest region in the world. The reason for the unprecedented temperatures is an “atmospheric flow,” meteorologists said. Atmospheric flow is a band of moisture-saturated air a few kilometers above the Earth’s surface that transports heat and moisture. Many experts emphasized that further research is now necessary – also to clarify a possible connection with the break-off of the ice.