A long-growing crack in the Larsen C ice shelf, one of Antarctica’s largest floating platforms of ice, appears to be nearing its endgame.
Researchers with Project MIDAS have released an update showing that the crack grew 11 miles in one week and now has just 8 miles to go before the iceberg, of about 2,000 square miles, breaks free into the Southern Ocean.
The loss of a large iceberg from Larsen C would not raise the sea level, since the ice is already afloat. However, the thinning and loss of ice shelves leads glaciers to flow more rapidly into the sea, and as ice is transferred from atop the land into the water, sea levels will rise.
However, there is not nearly as much ice held behind Larsen C as there is behind other glaciers in East and West Antarctica, which have also begun to lose mass in recent decades.
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Source: The Washington Post, 1 June 2017