An iceberg 492 feet thick and 490 square kilometers broke off the Brunt ice shelf on Friday, according to a press release from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). The section, which is larger than New York City, was split near BAS’s Halley research station, which was closed for the season earlier this month.
The research station is unlikely to be affected by the outage. Researchers say the first indication of calving occurred last November when a rift, known as the North Rift, became active, breaking into a gorge known as the Stancomb-Wills Glacier Tongue nearly 23 miles away.
“The iceberg was formed when the rift expanded several hundred meters in a few hours on the morning of February 26, releasing it from the rest of the floating ice shelf,” BAS noted in a press release.
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The director of the BAS, Simon Garrod, called the interruption a dynamic situation. Three cracks have been detected over the course of a decade, including the Halloween Crack and Chasm 1.
“Our job now is to closely monitor the situation and assess the possible impact of the current calving on the remaining ice shelf,” Garrod said in a press release.
Professor Dame Jane Francis, director of the British Antarctic Survey, said the team had been preparing for such an event for years and had been watching the movements and deformations of the Brunt ice shelf, even when BAS was not at the Halley research station. Researchers only stay at the station in the summer, as the winter months are dark and icy, making it difficult to observe.
It’s anyone’s guess what the ice shelf is going to do next. “The coming weeks or months could pull the iceberg away; or it could get stuck and stay near Brunt Ice Shelf,” Francis added.