With the help of a drone, British researchers filmed a giant crack in the Ice Continent.
The British Antarctic survey has been forced to temporarily close and relocate its Halley VI Research Station, located on the northwestern edge of the Ice Continent. The station is threatened by a recently formed giant crack, which is only 20 kilometers away. The crack itself was 40 kilometers long. She was filmed using a drone.
In places the crack bifurcates
Halley 6, named after astronomer Edmond Halley, has been in operation since late February 2012. Located on the Brunt Ice Shelf, which is connected to the mainland but floats in the Weddell Sea.
The threat is not that the polar explorers are about to fall through the ice. They may find themselves on a breakaway iceberg. And it will break off if the current crack joins with the previously formed fault, which is located on the other side of the station.
Location of cracks and faults
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The Antarctic Administration intends to move the station with tractors to another - safer - place in the near future. This is possible - 8 of its residential and scientific modules are installed on a sled.
Halley-6 station stands on supports and can be raised so that it is not covered with snow
Station modules can be transported from place to place
AT THIS TIME
Antarctica is also crumbling
A little further away from Halley-6 station, another giant iceberg is preparing to "set sail", located on the Larsen C ice shelf. The growth of a 350-meter-thick glacier crack has accelerated dramatically in the past year. There are only 20 kilometers left for an iceberg with an area of more than 5 thousand square kilometers to break away. In this case, the glacier will lose about 10 percent of its mass.
Scientists believe the cracks are caused by global warming.
Another iceberg is about to break away from the ice shelf of Antarctica
Vladimir LAGOVSKY