12/9/2023 0 Comments Antarctica iceberg found![]() According to Shuman: “We have no solid idea what ‘normal’ really is for this unusual ice shelf.” These areas are stressed by storms and tides and thin as they are melted from above or below, ultimately making them more prone to forming rifts and breaking away.Īs for the “new” Brunt, it remains to be seen how the complex floating glacial ice responds to the most recent calving event. As glacial ice flows from land and spreads out over the sea, shelf areas farthest from shore grow thinner. The breaking (calving) of icebergs from ice shelves is part of a natural, cyclical process of growth and decay at the limits of Earth’s ice sheets. “The rapid formation of subsequent rifts-to long-standing Chasm 1 and 2-and recent calving to the northeast makes it clear that these shelf areas are dynamic with poorly understood stresses,” said Christopher Shuman, a University of Maryland, Baltimore County, glaciologist based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The “new crack” in that image ultimately separated in February 2021 and formed Iceberg A-74. Notice several other cracks across the northeast part of the shelf. The second image, acquired with the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8, shows the extent of Chasm 1 on January 12, 2021, about two years prior to the break. Several factors may have contributed to the completion of the break, including a lack of sea ice to help resist, or “push back,” against the stresses on the shelf ice in 2023. That is, until the 2022–2023 Antarctic summer when the chasm sped up and ultimately broke past the McDonald Ice Rumples-a submerged knob of bedrock that served as a pinning point for this part of the shelf. It continued to lengthen for almost a decade, extending by as much as 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) per year in early 2019. ![]() This chasm started growing in the 1970s, followed by a period of dormancy, and then resumed growth in 2012. The break occurred along a rift known as Chasm 1. BAS reported that the station, which was relocated farther inland in 2016 as the chasm widened, was unaffected by the recent break. (For reference, the Antarctic Peninsula and its ice shelves are located on the opposite side of the Weddell.) The shelf has long been home to the British Antarctic Survey’s Halley Research Station, where scientists study Earth, atmospheric, and space weather processes. The glacial ice in the shelf flows away from the interior of Antarctica and floats on the eastern Weddell Sea. The berg is visible in this image, acquired on January 24, 2023, with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. National Ice Center has named it Iceberg A-81. The question among scientists was not if the growing rift would finish traversing the shelf and break, but when? Now, nearly four years later, it has done just that.Īccording to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the break occurred late on January 22, 2023, and produced a new iceberg with an area of 1550 square kilometers (about 600 square miles). Some say that the founder might be rewarded for his discovery.In February 2019, a rift spanning most of the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica appeared ready to spawn an iceberg about twice the size of New York City. The name on the packets was even faded since it was covered in ice for five decades. More searches were carried on in the nearby area to find out some evidence that might reveal the real owner of the jewels, but no clue was found. ![]() The alpinist was so honest that he climbed down from the peak of Mont-Blanc with his findings and headed straightway to the local police. These jewels were packed with sachets and had markings of “Made in India,” which made clear that these belonged to someone from the flight crash of 19. It contained hundreds of precious diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. Authorities say that the jewels belonged to one of the passengers from one of the flights.Ī Frenchman found a small metal box that was covered in ice about 50 years after the plane crash. It all started when the two Indian Airways planes crashed, one in 1950 and the second in 1966, resulting in 117 total deaths. Alpinist discovered rare Indian jewels worth $330,000 on Mont-Blanc.
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