The glacier, called A68a, even generated a smaller but still large chunk of ice, now known as A68B, and together they could threaten the island's wildlife.
An iceberg from the Larsen Sea Ice Shelf in Antarctica in 2017 slowly drifted off the coast of South Georgia Island, a British region in the South Atlantic.
The glacier, rated A68a by the National Ice Center, generated a smaller but still large chunk of ice, now known as A68B, and together they could threaten the island's wildlife if they wandered too soon and got stuck on the sea floor.
So far, the icebergs have not deflected into the shallow cliff extending from the island, but scientists are concerned that ocean currents will carry them southeast away from the island, then return them to the west, and land it in the east of the island. side.
If this happens, the penguin colonies in that area, as well as other marine wildlife, may have more difficulty foraging for food, as they have to shift around the ice to reach the best areas for hunting, for example.
This may cause a sudden drop in the numbers of penguins and seals during the peak breeding season. The island is home to millions of king penguins, pasta, seals, seabirds, and blue whales that feed on krill off the coast.
The main table glacier, with its flat plateau-like summit and steep slopes along its sides, is the size of Rhode Island and over 650 feet thick, with about nine-tenths of it underwater.
The smaller portion of the ice is usually considered large in its own right, being about 12 miles long and 6 miles wide at its widest point.
When the A68a separated from the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica in July 2017, it was about 2,300 square miles - roughly the size of Delaware. After falling ice from its edges and breaking lumps as it traveled through the harsh waters of "Iceberg Alley", the glacier is now smaller.
The Antarctic Peninsula, where the Larsen Sea Ice Shelf is located, is one of the fastest temperatures in the world. In February, a temperature of nearly 70 degrees was recorded on Seymour Island on the Antarctic Peninsula, which may be the highest temperature on record on the continent. When ice shelves like Larsen C melt, they release inland ice to move into the ocean, raising sea levels.
0 Comments