Antarctica: total disintegration of an ice barrier the size of Los Angeles

An ice shelf disintegrated last week in East Antarctica as an unprecedented "heat" wave hit the region, scientists have said.

"Total collapse of the Conger Ice Shelf in East Antarctica on March 15 (about 1200 km2)," tweeted Nasa scientist Catherine Colello Walker, posting satellite images of the event.

This corresponds approximately to the area of ​​Los Angeles or Rome, still far from the largest icebergs.

This barrier located in Wilkes Earth had begun its disintegration several years ago, but last week it experienced "its final collapse", indicated Jonathan Wille, of the Institute of Environmental Geosciences in Grenoble, referring to a "link" to the unusually high heat wave that hit the icy continent last week.

Complete collapse of East Antarctica's Conger Ice Shelf (~1200 sq. km) ~March 15, seen in combo of #Landsat and #MODIS imagery.

Possible it hit its tipping point following the #Antarctic #AtmosphericRiver and heatwave too?

#CongerIceShelf #Antarctica @helenafricker @icy_pete https://t.co/7dP5d6isvd pic.twitter.com/1wzmuOwdQn

— Catherine Colello Walker (@CapComCatWalk) March 24, 2022

According to the National Ice Center, an American agency that monitors floating ice, the disintegration of the ice barrier - the name given to the extension of glaciers above the sea - gave birth to an iceberg nearly 30 km long by 18 km wide, named C38, which then broke into two pieces.

The formation of icebergs, called calving, is a natural process, but warming air and oceans are helping to speed it up, scientists say.

And "the collapse of the Conger Barrier is more significant because it coincides with an extreme heat event," said Peter Davis, oceanographer at the British Antarctic Survey research center.

“An alarm bell”

This is not the first time that an Antarctic barrier has completely disintegrated.

So, in 2002, the much larger Larsen B barrier had collapsed, but it was on the Antarctic Peninsula, on the other side of the continent.

The Conger Barrier "may be smaller, but it's in East Antarctica, an area we thought was less vulnerable," Andrew Mackintosh of Monash University in Australia tweeted.

“It is an alarm bell.

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#Antarctica in the news again - first story below the war in @guardian.

This ice shelf may have been small but it is in EAST Antarctica, a region previously considered less vulnerable.

It's a wake up call.

https://t.co/dAXXZfgqfo pic.twitter.com/3tT5EfHh9t

— Andrew Mackintosh ❄️ (@AMacGlac) March 25, 2022

The east of the frozen continent, whose ice cap contains enough ice to raise sea levels by several tens of meters, suffered an exceptional heat wave last week that surprised scientists, with temperatures up to at 40°C higher than seasonal norms.

It is not possible at the time an event occurs to attribute it to climate change, but the intensification of heat waves is in line with scientists' predictions.

In general, Antarctica, like the Arctic, is warming faster than the planet's average, which has gained around +1.1°C since the pre-industrial era.

“If this heat wave is a precursor to future conditions in the region, then this calving is very significant and scientists will do everything possible to understand how these two events are linked,” insisted Peter Davis.