An iceberg measuring 1,550 sq. kilometers (598 sq. miles) — roughly the scale of Larger London — broke away from the Brunt Ice Shelf close to a analysis station in Antarctica on Sunday, January 22, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) mentioned on Monday. A “main crack” known as Chasm-1 that was detected a decade in the past within the shelf’s 150-meter-thick ice was “now totally prolonged throughout the ice shelf,” the BAS mentioned. “This calving is a pure a part of the life cycle of the ice shelf, not associated to local weather change,” they added. In 2016, in preparation for the calving, the UK’s Halley VI Analysis Station was moved 26 kilometers (16.15 miles) away from Chasm-1 because the crack started to widen, the BAS mentioned. The analysis station’s 21 workers had been “working to keep up the facility provides and amenities that hold the scientific experiments working remotely by the winter,” the BAS mentioned. “Presently they’re unaffected, and their work will proceed till they’re collected by plane round February 6,” they added. Credit score: British Antarctic Survey by way of Storyful
