With the effect of global warming, billions of tons of glaciers are melting each year. With the increasing temperatures, huge chunks of ice in the glaciers break off and mix into the ocean.
The Brunt Ice Shelf glacier on the Antarctic coast recently collapsed from a piece almost 2 times the size of Yalova. A total of 256 billion tons of glacier broke away from its main part.
Breaking moments of the glacier with a surface area of 1,550 kilometers:
According to the statement shared by the British Antarctic Survey, the glacier had a thickness of 150 meters. The area of the broken piece was 1,550 square kilometers. The rupture of the glacier took place on 22 January between 22:00 and 23:00 CEST.
So why did the piece break?
- Chasm-1
The breakouts in Brunt Ice Shelf have actually been going on for a long time. Chasm-1, the region of the last rupture, has now turned into a breaking point and has been shrinking for over a decade. The last rupture was recorded as the second largest rupture in the region in recent years.