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UK scientists are seeking to understand the triggers that result in the production of giant Antarctic icebergs.
Nearly half the ice lost from the white continent comes from the shedding of these often city-sized frozen blocks.
This makes them a major consideration in forecasts of future sea level rise.
British researchers hope to glean new insights into the physics of ice fracturing by studying a sector of the Antarctic that recently saw the breakaway of two mega-bergs.
The expectation is that the work will lead to models that better predict where and when events known as calvings might occur. Scientists use the term “calving” to describe an iceberg breakaway – like a cow giving birth to her young.
The region under study is the Brunt Ice Shelf, which is the floating protrusion of glaciers that have flowed off the continent into the Weddell Sea.
In 2021, the shelf produced a berg the size of Greater Paris – 1,300 sq km/810 sq miles – called A74, followed in 2023 by an even bigger block called A81 that was, at 1,500 sq km (930 sq miles), the size of Greater London.
Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have just returned from the Brunt Ice Shelf, where they deployed an array of instrumentation – including seismometers, radar and GPS receivers – on the remaining shelf structure.
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