Giant iceberg A74 collides with the coast of Antarctica

A massive iceberg the size of the territory of St. Petersburg hit the coast of Antarctica. As seen in

According to satellite images of scientists, the contact was weak, but if the impact had been stronger, the iceberg could have disconnected an even larger section of ice from the continent. 

Scientists from the UK watched with interestevent, since the glacier is located near their base. The Halley research station on the mainland has been mothballed for now, as there is uncertainty about how the block of ice will behave in the near future.

“We have been very closely following the situation inover the past six months because the A74 has been drifting in the same area, said Ollie Marsh of the British Antarctic Survey. "But then there were very strong easterly winds that seem to have caused the A74 to move quickly, causing it to slip along the edge of the continent."

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Scientists continue to study the situation with the helpGPS sensors installed on the ice shelf and on the A74. These instruments transmit data hourly and daily to headquarters in Cambridge. Their data captures any sharp movements of the ice.

While this week's contact caused very little change in the Brant Shelf, it was clearly not enough to break the additional 2 km of ice that holds the Western Shelf in place.

“So it looks like there was a push that affected western Brant, but not enough to cause it to collapse,” the researchers note.

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