The European Space Agency warned of the impending cataclysm
Images from the European Space Agency's (ESA) CryoSat and Sentinel-1 satellites show that a giant iceberg is about to break away from Antarctica - specifically from the Larsen Ice Shelf (Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf). Mega-iceberg, as experts called it. The area of the ice field will be 6,000 square kilometers - almost from Abkhazia (8,600 sq. Km) or from two Ajaria (2899 sq. Km).
Scientists have made a 3D model of an iceberg, which is preparing to sail from the shores of Antarctica
First, a 100-kilometer crack appeared in the glacier, the growth of which sharply accelerated last year. In January of this year, it was 20 kilometers to the ocean, now - only five. The crack can cover the remaining distance in a couple of months, or even faster.
Crack - almost 500 meters deep
The process of separating the afsberg from the glacier will continue to be monitored by the radars of the Sentinel-1 satellite. He will "see" the moment of separation. And CryoSat has already made it possible to determine the parameters of the iceberg.
According to Noel Gourmelen of the University of Edinburgh, the iceberg will rise 190 meters above the water, the underwater part will sink 210 meters, and the volume of ice in the breakaway hulk will be 1155 cubic kilometers.
ESA specialists intend not to lose sight of the mega-iceberg even after the separation. After all, where he will go, and how, is known only approximately. It can swim entirely right up to the Falkland Islands, presenting a danger to navigation along the way, or it can split into several fragments.
Promotional video:
Red lines - paths of icebergs that broke away from Antarctica
Fears that the iceberg will raise the sea level are in vain. It would raise if it slipped off land, but the iceberg breaks off the shelf ice, which is already floating. That is, he once displaced "his" water.
The breakaway iceberg will be the largest on record. It will reduce the ice volume of the Larsen Glacier by 10 percent. If someday, as a result of global warming, this entire glacier - the one that remains on the mainland - is in the water - there will be no big flooding either. The world ocean level will rise by only 10 centimeters.
VLADIMIR LAGOVSKY