The Brunt shelf has been monitored by glaciologists for decades and is constantly changing. The two lengthening fractures have been set to intersect for years – it’s only a matter of time for the two to meet. When they meet, an iceberg about the size of Greater London will break off. Now, Chasm 1 and Halloween crack are only separated by a few kilometres. It was previously stable for many years, but in 2012, it was noticed that the dormant crack started extending northwards.

This pinning point slows the flow of ice and crumples the ice surface into waves.Ĭhasm 1 on the other hand has been in place for over 25 years. The large chasm running northwards is called Chasm 1, while the split extending eastwards is referred to as the Halloween Crack.įirst spotted on 31 October 2016, the Halloween crack runs from an area known as McDonald Ice Rumples – which is where the underside of the floating ice sheet is grounded on the shallow seabed. Using radar images from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, the animation shows the evolution of two ice fractures from September 2016 until mid-October 2019. The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission takes us over cracks in the Brunt ice shelf, which lies in the Weddell Sea sector of Antarctica.

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