Following the calving of the A-81 iceberg at the end of January 2023, the Brunt Ice Shelf is moving faster than before. It is currently moving approximately 4 meters a day towards the sea, whereas before the calving it moved at an average of between 1-2.5 meters a day.
A research mission to determine the impact of the giant A-68a iceberg on one of the world’s most important ecosystems gets underway next month. A team of scientists, led by British Antarctic Survey (BAS), will set sail on the National Oceanography Centre’s (NOC) ship bound for the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia.
For nearly 20 years, researchers have closely watched a “loose tooth” of ice dangle from the edge of the Antarctic ice sheet, waiting for it to detach.
A large iceberg in Antarctica has calved off the Larsen C ice shelf as of July last year and budged only a little from the coast until recently. In the past two months, the iceberg, known as 'A68', has taken a drastic 90 degree swing away from the Antarctic mainland and into the Southern Ocean.