Crack in Antarctic ice shelf will produce iceberg size of Bali

OSLO: One of the biggest icebergs on record is like a “niggling tooth” about to snap off Antarctica and will be an extra hazard for ships around the frozen continent as it breaks up, scientists said this week.

An area of the Larsen C ice shelf, of about 5 700km2 in surface area, is connected by 13km of ice after a crack crept about 175km along the sheet, with a new jump last month. “It’s keeping us all on tenterhooks,” said Andrew Fleming, of the British Antarctic Survey.

Ice shelves are flat-topped areas of ice floating on the sea at the end of glaciers. The Larsen C ice is about 200 metre thick, with about 20 metres jutting above the water.

Big icebergs break off Antarctica naturally, meaning scientists are not linking the rift to man-made climate change. The ice, however, is a part of the Antarctic peninsula that has warmed fast in recent decades.

“There is no other evidence of change on the ice shelf. This could simply be a single calving event which will then be followed by re-growth,” said Adrian Luckman, a professor at the University of Swansea in Wales.

His team reckons the ice will break off within months, perhaps in days or years.

The ice will add to existing risks for ships as it breaks apart and melts.

The peninsula is outside major trade routes, but is the main destination for cruise ships visiting from South America. In 2009, more than 150 passengers and crew were evacuated after the MV Explorer sank after striking an iceberg off the Antarctic peninsula. The loss of ice shelves does not in itself affect sea levels because the ice is already floating. But their disappearance lets glaciers on land slip faster towards the ocean, thereby raising sea levels. – Reuters

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