![]() “The calving will not directly affect sea level, because the ice shelf was already floating, much like an ice cube in a glass of water,” he said. Researchers have been studying the ice shelf since the 1960s and currently have instruments on the ice that are measuring the impact of ocean melt and ice flow.įricker said: “It’s part of the ice shelf’s normal cycle, where we see major calving events every 60-70 years.”īen Galton-Fenzi, a glaciologist with the Australian Antarctic Program, said the calving was detected through satellite imagery. The Amery ice shelf is the third largest in Antarctica and is located between Australia’s Davis and Mawson research stations. “We knew it would happen eventually, but just to keep us all on our toes, it is not exactly where we expected it to be.” “I am excited to see this calving event after all these years,” she said. Helen Amanda Fricker, a Scripps professor, said scientists first noticed a rift at the front of the ice shelf in the early 2000s and had predicted a large iceberg would break off between 20. Scientists from the Australian Antarctic program, the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies and Scripps Institution of Oceanography have been monitoring the site for almost 20 years. The calving occurred next to a location known as the “loose tooth” that scientists had been watching because the ice appeared to be precariously attached. It is the first major calving event on the Amery ice shelf since 1963-64 although scientists said they did not believe it was linked to climate change. ![]() Photograph: The Amery ice shelf has an estimated floating ice area of 60,000 sq km and water penetrates over 550km underneath it. Ice bergs are calved off the edges of ice shelves.
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