A massive iceberg, twice as big as luxembourg or seven times the size of New York, has broken off Antarctica and is estimated to weight a trillion tonnes. It sheared off the Larson C Ice Shelf between July 10th and 12th, 2017 and covers an area of 5,600km.
Both NASA and the European Space Agency had been tracking the growing rift for the past year and had warned that the shelf was in danger of breaking away. But they’ll be no massive rise in sea levels or tidal waves – the breakaway ice had already been floating meaning its has zero impact on sea levels. It does mean the Larson C ice shelf is now 12% smaller.
All eyes are now on the remainder of the Larson C ice shelf to see if this will speed up the breakup of the shelf completely. A neighbouring shelf, Larson B, broke up completely in 2002 when a chunk of it calved off in 1995.
It’s not known what will happen this iceberg – one of the largest recorded. It may drift into warmer waters and melt or could remain where in around the Antarctica meaning it could take decades to melt.
Scientists are currently arguing if the calving was caused by global warming or was due to occur anyway. Conspiracy theorists are blaming countries for excavating the area in search of buried alien technology and weapons. Global warming heads are warning this is the first of many more calving events and that eventually the North and South poles will mostly melt.
Antarctica has long been the source of conspiracy theories – due mainly to the belief that it was relatively ice free c. 12,000 years ago and was probably covered in lush forests and vegetation 10 million years ago. So any alien cities or bases may have been based there before being flash frozen by a sudden change in temperatures – meaning that they would be still intact today albeit buried under a mile of ice.
The lost city of Atlantis has also been traced to Antarctica, with the Greek philosopher Plato saying the people who lived in Atlantis were half god and half human – and that they existed 9,000 years before him. They were the ideal nation-state and had a navy that was unrivaled, ruling lands around their city and conquering as far as Africa and Europe.
