As big as the “Big Apple”. An iceberg the size of New York has come off Antarctica, not far from a British research station that has long feared such events in the area.
The ice block, which covers almost 1,270 square kilometers, separated from the rest of the ice block early Friday morning, according to data collected by British instruments installed near the station.
No human life is threatened, as the 12 people who have worked so far at Halley VI station, located less than 20 kilometers from the rupture zone, were evacuated in mid-February by plane, the British Antarctic Survey said in a statement “research organization in the polar zones that explores the place”.
“Our teams have been prepared for years for an iceberg to come off Brunt’s ice shelf”, said Jane Francis, director of BAS, teams monitoring “daily” the progress of failures thanks to “an automated high-precision GPS network instrumentation around the station”.
These data, then sent to the University of Cambridge for analysis, made it possible to give the alert on Friday without anyone being there.
In 2017, BAS had already decided to reduce its presence at this station built in 2012 and move it a few kilometers, fearing that it would end up in a drifting iceberg, following the melting of the ice.
Several scenarios are now possible for the coming months: “either the iceberg will move away or run aground and remain” nearby, estimates Jane Francis. The teams will not be back anytime soon, as the season remains closed for the rest of the arctic winter.