An iceberg 492 feet thick and 490 square miles wide broke off the Brunt Ice Shelf on Friday, according to a press release from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). The section, which was larger than New York City, split near BAS’s Halley Research Station, which closed for the season earlier this month.
The research station is unlikely to be affected by the break. Researchers say the first indication of calving came last November, when a crack known as the North Rift became active and tore into a canyon known as the Stancomb-Wills Glacier Tongue, nearly 37 miles away.
“The iceberg was formed when the crack widened several hundred meters in a matter of hours on the morning of February 26, separating it from the rest of the floating ice shelf,” BAS said in a press release.
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Simon Garrod, Director of Operations at BAS, called the split “a dynamic situation.” Three cracks have been discovered over the course of a decade, including the Halloween Crack and Chasm 1.
“Our job now is to keep a close eye on the situation and assess the potential impact of the current calving on the remaining ice shelf,” Garrod said in a press release.
Professor Dame Jane Francis, director of the British Antarctic Survey, said the team had been preparing for such an event for years and had been monitoring the movements and deformations of the Brunt Ice Shelf even when BAS is not at Halley Research Station. Researchers only stay at the station during the summer, as the winter months are dark and freezing, making them difficult to observe.
Everyone guesses what the ice shelf will do next. “In the next few weeks or months, the iceberg could disappear, or it could get stuck and stay close to the Brunt Ice Shelf,” added Francis.