A colossal iceberg the size of a city or even a dwarf country recently separated from the continent of Antarctica. Scientists estimate the area of the breakaway block of ice at least two hundred and five square kilometers.
This is about the same as the area of the city of Astrakhan or Yaroslavl, and almost a quarter more than the territory of the Western European state-baby Liechtenstein.
The incident at the South Pole was first reported by the South Korean Ministry of Maritime Economy. According to its representatives, the split occurred in the southeast of Antarctica, namely in the area of the Nansen glacier, and was recorded by the staff of the Chan Bogo scientific station. The thickness of the ice floe, according to experts, varies in different places from hundreds to nine hundred meters. Under the influence of the high temperature, the iceberg already splits into two parts.
Today's iceberg has been under surveillance for two years
Scientists from South Korea have been observing the just cracked block since January 2014. At that time, experts for the first time recorded a thirty-kilometer crack that began to separate the future iceberg and the Nansen Glacier. Melt water flowed continuously from this rift. For the next two years, the glacier slowly but steadily melted, until, at last, such a huge piece was separated from it. The Koreans managed to install a navigator on the iceberg in order to continuously monitor the movement of the ice floe by means of the Arirang-5 satellite.
It is assumed that the drifting ice block will not pose a danger to ships. Today, all ships are equipped with global positioning systems, so it will not be difficult to bypass the iceberg. In the near future, the ice floe will move to the north - to warmer waters and completely melt.
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Despite the fact that the huge block should not harm anyone, the world scientific community is already sounding the alarm. Scientists from all over the world are expressing concern about the rapid melting of ice. When the described ice floe disappears, hundreds of thousands of tons of water are formed, which must certainly affect the level of the World Ocean. And what's in the future? After all, if all the Antarctic ice melts, then the water in the ocean will rise by about seventy meters, which will lead to the flooding of many parts of the land of our planet.
According to some experts, the disaster caused by global warming has never been felt so strongly as it is today. Therefore, if you do not take any measures to prevent it, life on the planet may turn out to be on the verge of the Apocalypse in the very near future …