A major discovery in Antarctica has big implications for the entire continent in the future.
Scientists have just spotted something incredibly alarming down in Antarctica: a massive crack that is only growing larger and could result in one of the largest icebergs ever witnessed by humans. The crack was first spotted in the 1960s in Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf, and now it is 100 miles long and two miles wide, and growing very quickly.
Scientists have been on “shelfwatch” waiting for the iceberg to officially form, with only 12 miles now connecting the iceberg to the Larsen C shelf. Fortunately, this ice shelf sits on the ocean, so the break off of the iceberg wouldn’t cause oceans to rise. But it is a worrying sign of things to come for the continent.
Scientists compared it to a popped cork, adding that like all the wine spilling out, the glacial ice on land will start flowing out, which will contribute to rising global sea levels.
“The thinning is partly due to warm air melting the ice shelf from above and partly from warm ocean water melting it from below,” said Christopher Shuman of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
“You can think of the Larsen or really any ice shelf like it is a cork in the neck of a champagne bottle lying on its side,” Shuman said. “Once you pop that cork, the wine inside—all that glacial ice sitting on land—will start flowing out. And that’s worrisome because such thinning land ice is directly increasing global sea levels. With other floating ice thinning and retreating elsewhere in Antarctica, it sure looks like many corks are ready to pop.”