BRENT: Antarctica’s Larsen B ice-shelf is on course to disintegrate completely within the next five years, according to a new study by Nasa, the US space agency.
The 10,000-year-old ice shelf, which partially collapsed in 2002, is “quickly weakening” and likely to “disintegrate completely” before the end of the decade, researchers predicted, after observing warning signs including large developing cracks and faster-flowing tributary glaciers.
“These are warning signs that the remnant is disintegrating,” said Ala Khazendar of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
“Although it’s fascinating scientifically to have a front-row seat to watch the ice shelf becoming unstable and breaking up, it’s bad news for our planet. This ice shelf has existed for at least 10,000 years, and soon it will be gone.”
The data for the study was collected by aircraft measuring ice surface elevations and bedrock depths and space-based “synthetic aperture radars” that have been operating since 1997. The Larsen B ice shelf is currently 625 square miles in area and 1,640ft at its thickest point.
The studies have shown that two of the three glaciers feeding Larsen B have sped up markedly since the shelf split in 2002, with scientists now predicting that a major crack is likely to move all the way across the shelf, splintering the remnants into icebergs that will float away.
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