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Near the UK Antarctic base, an iceberg the size of London breaks off. Researchers said Monday that a massive iceberg roughly the size of Greater London had broken off the Antarctic ice shelf near a research outpost, the second such split in two years.
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) stated that the new iceberg's development — a natural process known as "calving" — was not caused by climate change, which is hastening the loss of sea ice in the Arctic and portions of Antarctica.
The 1,550-square-kilometer iceberg broke away from the 150-metre-thick Brunt Ice Shelf a decade after scientists discovered major breaches in the shelf.
A similar stunning split happened around a year ago, involving a 1,270-square-kilometer iceberg.
"This calving episode was predicted and is part of the Brunt Ice Shelf's normal behaviour," stated BAS glaciologist Dominic Hodgson.
"It has nothing to do with climate change."
The Halley VI Research Station in the United Kingdom monitors the health of the enormous floating ice shelf on a regular basis and is untouched by the current break.
In 2016-2017, the mobile research station was relocated inland for safety concerns due to ice fractures that threatened to cut it off.
Since then, personnel have only been stationed there during the Antarctic summer, from November to March, with 21 researchers now on-site.
They retain the power supply and facilities that allow scientific investigations to run remotely during the winter, when it is dark for 24 hours and the temperature drops below minus 50 degrees Celsius (-58 degrees Farenheit).
"Our research and operations staff continue to monitor the ice shelf in real-time to guarantee its safety and to deliver the science we do at Halley," Hodgson added.
According to the BAS, a world leader in environmental studies in the region, they will be gathered by plane around February 6.
