The NASA Earth Observatory shared a set of images last week comparing satellite photos taken in January 1986 and January of this year of the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica. According to NASA, the crack forming through the middle of the shelf has begun moving again, after lying dormant for the last 35 years (Chasm 1 in images below). If that crack cuts across the “Halloween crack” discovered in 2016, it will separate an “area of ice … from the shelf [that] will likely be at least 1700 square kilometers (660 square miles).” And the changes to the shelf have been coming fast and furious.
If this section separates from the Brunt Shelf, it would create an iceberg around twice the size of New York City. According to the Earth Observatory, while this would not be one of the largest icebergs “by Antarctic standards,” it would be the largest one to break off of the Brunt Shelf since 1915, when the area was first surveyed by Ernest Shackleton.
The changes to the Brunt Ice Shelf over the last couple of decades are all new to scientists. However, they follow a pattern of large and similarly disturbing events over the past couple of years, including drastic melting on Pine Island Glacier and the Ross Ice Shelf.