- Satellites that continuously photograph Antarctica recorded a Delaware-size iceberg breaking off in July.
- A glaciologist has animated nine months-worth of photos from space into a short animation.
- The animation shows iceberg A-68 – the third-largest in human history – breaking off and floating away from the Larsen C ice shelf.
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| Iceberg A-68 (center) drifts off the Antarctic Peninsula in this daytime satellite image. LANCE/NASA |
In July, a huge crack in Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf calved the third-largest iceberg in recorded history.
The scale of the giant ice block, dubbed A-68, is truly awesome: roughly the area of Delaware, the mass of 5.6 Mount Everests, and voluminous enough to fill Lake Erie more than twice.
Adrian Luckman, a glaciologist at Swansea University, has used a polar satellite called Sentinel-1 along with other Antarctic researchers to keep an eye on the iceberg since before its birth.
On Wednesday, Luckman posted an animation to Twitter that compressed nine months-worth of satellite images into a few seconds. “Bon voyage A68,” Luckman said in his tweet.
We’ve slowed down that animation down to 10 seconds to show the iceberg’s birth and evolution:
In the first half of the animation, from March through early
July, you can see the large rift develop from south to north. Then, in
mid-July, the huge iceberg breaks free from its ice shelf. The rest of
the clip shows A-68 floating into the Weddell Sea, bumping back into the
ice shelf, and slowing working its way north through December.The scale of the giant ice block, dubbed A-68, is truly awesome: roughly the area of Delaware, the mass of 5.6 Mount Everests, and voluminous enough to fill Lake Erie more than twice.
Adrian Luckman, a glaciologist at Swansea University, has used a polar satellite called Sentinel-1 along with other Antarctic researchers to keep an eye on the iceberg since before its birth.
On Wednesday, Luckman posted an animation to Twitter that compressed nine months-worth of satellite images into a few seconds. “Bon voyage A68,” Luckman said in his tweet.
We’ve slowed down that animation down to 10 seconds to show the iceberg’s birth and evolution:
The fate of A-68 could take a long time to play out. Though it’s already losing big chunks, it may lurk in the open ocean for years.
It will ultimately melt into sea water, which will evaporate and make its way into clouds, rain, snow, more icebergs, and living beings.
Links
- Ice Melting in Antarctica Could Push Sea Levels High Enough to Flood Out 236 Million People, Scientists Predict
- Birdseye view of iceberg A-68A
- Melting ice in one spot causes kick-on thousands of kilometres away
- The biggest climate findings in 2017
- The Larsen C ice shelf break has sparked groundbreaking research
- Iceberg twice size of Luxembourg breaks off Antarctic ice shelf
- Giant Antarctic iceberg 'hanging by a thread', say scientists
- Giant iceberg poised to break off from Antarctic shelf
- Antarctic ice thicker than previously thought, study finds
- B31: huge Antarctic iceberg headed for open ocean
- Iceberg half the size of Greater London calves off Antarctic glacier
- Giant Antarctic iceberg could affect global ocean circulation
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