The Iceberg A68 in west of Antarctica has completely detached itself from ice shelf and begins to drift into warmer water. More than a year ago, in July 2017, iceberg was demolished by so-called Larsen-C ice Shelf. With its size of 175 kilometers and up to 50 kilometers wide, iceberg was one of largest ever observed.
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On satellite images, we can see how mountain is moving in a leisurely way, said Thomas Rackow, who works as climate scientist at Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven. “It’s going slowly.”
According to recordings, Iceberg A68 has meanwhile turned out of gap in ice, which was created by its abandonment. Only norrn tip of mountain seems to lie still. “It should not be long before it is accelerated by ocean currents,” scientist said. “Then he is no longer stopping.”
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On its way into warmer waters iceberg will be zunehmendkleiner. “Especially at bottom he will melt heavily,” said Rackow. And also sesameness will set mountain so that it will surely break apart. Currently, this is only prevented by fact that iceberg is still surrounded by sea ice. The vapors of waves.
The trigger that A68 has now finally solved is wind: over past few days, a strong Föhnwind that blew from ice shelf to east has finally set iceberg in motion, said Adrian Luckman, glaciologist at Swansea University in Wales.