An 80-mile crack is spreading across the Antarctic Peninsula’s Larsen C ice shelf. And once that crack reaches the ocean, it will calve an iceberg the size of Delaware. The chunk looked like it could break off a few months ago, but it’s still clinging on by a roughly 10-mile thread. Earlier this week, scientists from the MIDAS project, which monitors Larsen C, reported a new branch on that crack.
Icebergs naturally calve from ice shelves all the time. But scientists are concerned that the entire Larsen C Ice Shelf — Antarctica’s fourth largest — could eventually collapse after this iceberg drifts out to sea. The iceberg will take 10 percent of Larsen C’s mass with it, leaving the floating shelf less stable.
There’s good reason to worry. The nearby Larsen A ice shelf collapsed in 1995. Seven years later, the neighboring Larsen B crumbled after a particularly warm summer. ...
