“Iceberg the size of Greater London”

The Guardian has reported that an iceberg the size of metropolitan London has broken away from Antarctica, just 20km from the UK’s Halley research station. The iceberg “calved” from the Brunt Ice Shelf on Friday and is estimated to be 1,270 sq km and 150m thick.

The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has been operating at the Halley station in a reduced role since 2017 because of concerns that an iceberg was likely to split off. Luckily, no one was at the base when the calving occurred. Cracks in the ice of the Brunt shelf were first discovered a decade ago and the BAS has been closely monitoring the area ever since.

Adrian Luckman, British glaciologist and professor of geology at Swansea University, said: “Although the breaking off of large parts of Antarctic ice shelves is an entirely normal part of how they work, large calving events such as the one detected at the Brunt Ice Shelf on Friday remain quite rare… Time will tell whether this calving will trigger more pieces to break off in the coming days and weeks.”