Iceberg The Size Of Atlanta Broke Off A Glacier In Antartica

This isn't the first time you have heard stories about a glacier breaking off, threatening to raise ocean levels and potentially causing ecological disruption but if you weren't paying attention before, it's time to do it now.

An iceberg has broken off Pine Island Glacier, PIG on the edge of Antarctica, according to an article by CNN.

Glaciers are large, moving, thickened ice masses. While some glaciers are as small as football fields, others grow to be dozens or even hundreds of kilometers long.

Satellite images taken Tuesday by the European Space Agency (ESA) show the massive iceberg with the size of more than 300 square kilometers (116 square miles), almost as big as Atlanta and roughly the same size as Malta. However, said iceberg shattered very quickly after breaking off.

"What you are looking at is both terrifying and beautiful," said Mark Drinkwater, head of the Earth and Mission Sciences Division at the ESA. "It is clear from these images (that the Pine Island Glacier) is responding to climate change dramatically."

(Photo : Twitter)
Screenshot from: Copernicus EU Official Twitter Account

Icebergs calving from glaciers is a natural process, the Division Head pointed out that the rate of melting and calving seen in West Antarctica is larger than anything observed in the satellite record. He added that there is an "imbalance" in the glacial system since warming temperatures heats up ocean water and declines snowfall which prevents the glacier to replenish itself.

Pine Island Glacier, along with its neighbor Thwaites Glacier, plays an integral role in connecting the West Antarctic ice sheet to the ocean. According to NASA, the ice found at the region is large enough to raise global sea levels by 1.2 meters, or 4 feet.

The ESA's Copernicus Sentinel satellite mission earlier this month captured cracks appearing and "rapidly" growing over a number of days.

(Photo : Twitter)
Screenshot from: Copernicus EU Official Twitter Account

And only a few days later, the glacier ESA referred to as PIG (Pine Island Glacier), "spawned piglets," in a process known as calving and "many large" icebergs were formed. Due to the size of the largest fragment, it was even labelled as "B-49."

This isn't the first time icebergs broke off in PIG. In 2019, scientists have kept a close eye on the cracks and changes of the two large rifts spotted in PIG. Over the past 25 years, PIG has been losing ice, with calving events occurring multiple times since 1992. "Since the early 1990s, the Pine Island Glacier's ice velocity has increased dramatically to values which exceed 10 meters (or 30 feet) a day," the space agency said in a press release.

"Its floating ice front, which has an average thickness of approximately 500 meters, has experienced a series of calving events over the past 30 years, some of which have abruptly changed the shape and position of the ice front," the ESA said.

The calving came after the hottest temperature was recorded on the continent at 20.75 degrees Celcius (68F) as logged by Brazilian scientists at Seymour Island on 9 February was almost a full degree higher than the previous record of 19.8C, taken on Signy Island in January 1982. Last week, a region in the North West's temperature reached 18 degrees Celsius (65 degrees Fahrenheit), which is almost a one degree higher than the previous record from five years ago.

"Sea level rise can have huge economic and societal impacts. ... We have been crying out for instruments like this," Drinkwater said. "These satellites are showing how much mass has been lost."

Drinkwater hopes the images would continue to serve as an "eye in the sky" to monitor changes in the glaciers and help increase public awareness of the real situation.