New Delhi:
US space agency NASA has released some amazing pictures showing the movement of the massive iceberg that recently broke off from Antarctica in July this year. The Antarctic Iceberg was one of the largest ever recorded.
The image was captured by NASA through Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) on Landsat 8 satellite; this was so because Antarctica which is situated in the southern hemisphere remains in darkness
The Image taken by NASA shows 5,800 square kilometre iceberg that split off from the Antarctic Peninsula's Larsen C ice shelf on July 10-12.
In the satellite image through Landsat 8 on July 14 and July 21, it can be seen that the main berg, A-68, has already lost several smaller pieces.
The A-68 iceberg is being carried by currents northward out of its embayment on the Larsen C ice shelf.
An iceberg about the size of the state of Delaware split off from Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf sometime between July 10 and July 12.
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The breakage that occurred in Larsen C Ice Shelf and took more than 12% of its total area. This occurence of chunks breaking off is known as calving, which is considered a natural phenomenon, but scientists have noted that the recent event was quite enormous.
“The iceberg is one of the largest recorded, and its future progress is difficult to predict”, said Adrian Luckman of Wales' Swansea University, who led a project tracking the crack since 2015. “It may remain in one piece but is more likely to break into fragments. Some of the ice may remain in the area for decades, while parts of the iceberg may drift north into warmer waters.”
If it follows the path of previous icebergs from the Larsen Ice Shelf, it will drift north along the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula before heading northeast into the south Atlantic Ocean, according to NASA.
