Massive Iceberg Breaks Off Antarctic Brunt Ice Shelf - View From Space - video Dailymotion

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A 1550 square km (963 sq mi.) iceberg, designated A81 broke off Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf.  A time-lapse of the 'calving process' was captured by satellites.  Credit; ESA - European Space Agency

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00:47 An enormous iceberg has carved from Antarctica's Brunt Ice

00:51 Shelf.

00:54 After several years of desperately clinging on,

00:57 the Berg broke away, as confirmed by satellite data.

01:01 Scientists estimate the new Berg to be around 1,550 square

01:06 kilometers.

01:08 That's the size of greater London,

01:10 or five times the size of Malta.

01:14 The Brunt Ice Shelf borders the Coatsland Coast

01:17 in the Weddell Sea sector of Antarctica.

01:21 Glaciologists have monitored the thick Brunt Ice Shelf

01:24 for years.

01:24 The new Berg carved when the crack known as Chasm 1

01:31 split northwards, severing the west part of the ice shelf.

01:34 It was only a matter of time before it

01:39 would meet the Halloween crack.

01:41 First spotted on, you guessed it, Halloween.

01:45 After several years on watch for Brunt Iceberg carving,

01:48 we finally witnessed the long-awaited separation

01:51 of the western Brunt Ice Shelf as Iceberg A81.

01:54 Routine monitoring from satellites

01:58 offers unparalleled views of events

02:00 happening in remote regions.

02:04 The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission

02:06 carries radar, which returns images

02:08 regardless of day or night.

02:09 This allows us year-round viewing,

02:14 which is especially important through the long, dark winter

02:17 months.

02:18 The British Antarctic Survey's Halley 6 Research Station,

02:25 where glaciologists have been monitoring

02:27 the behavior of the ice shelf, was relocated in 2017

02:32 to a more secure location after the ice shelf was deemed unsafe.

02:37 The station has remained unaffected

02:39 by the carving event.

02:41 There are currently 21 staff working at the station

02:44 to keep scientific operations running through winter.

02:49 It is now around 20 kilometers from the line of rupture.

02:52 Thanks to the Copernicus Sentinel satellites,

02:58 together with in-situ and airborne measurements made

03:01 by the British Antarctic Survey, the safety of the Halley base

03:04 has been preserved.

03:07 In February 2021, a giant berg broke off

03:10 from the northern section of Brunt.

03:12 Spotted by Sentinel-1, it has already

03:19 drifted away from the Brunt ice shelf into the Weddell Sea.

03:23 So what happens now?

03:25 The carving of icebergs can speed up the flow of ice

03:28 from an ice shelf.

03:29 If Brunt now experiences an acceleration,

03:32 it could influence the behavior of other cracks in the area.

03:37 The carving and separation of the latest iceberg, A81,

03:41 now focuses attention back onto the Halloween crack, whose

03:44 extension could contribute to further destabilization

03:47 of the remaining eastern portion of the Brunt ice shelf.

03:51 We will continue using the Copernicus Sentinel satellites

03:54 to closely monitor the behavior and stability of the remaining

03:57 Brunt ice shelf.

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Massive Iceberg Breaks Off Antarctic Brunt Ice Shelf - View From Space

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