As of: March 6, 2024, 7:06 p.m
By: Robin Dittrich
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A research team from the University of Washington examined a crack in the ice shelf of the Pine Island Glacier.
A special feature stood out.
Washington - In Antarctica, cracks are constantly forming in ice sheets, which then cause icebergs to break off.
Climate change is accelerating what is actually a natural process.
A glacier broke apart there in record time in 2012.
Glacier in Antarctica is breaking apart in record time
The researchers at the University of Washington published their results in the journal AGU Advances.
As the team stated, there is so much frozen water in the glaciers of Greenland and Antarctica that if they were to melt, the oceans would rise by several meters.
Science cannot fully calculate what will happen to the glaciers in the next few decades.
This is also why the research team examined a glacier crack from 2012.
In Antarctica, cracks continue to form in the ice shelf.
In 2012, such a crack appeared in record time.
© photothek/Imago (symbol image)
The glacier that broke apart at the time is said to have shattered along an Antarctic ice shelf in the fastest known large-scale break.
As the study states, an approximately 10.5 kilometer long crack appeared on the Pine Island Glacier within five and a half minutes.
That translates to about 35 meters per second, which “to our knowledge was the fastest crack opening event ever observed,” said lead author Stephanie Olinger.
Formation of cracks in the ice shelf like breaking glass
Olinger carried out the work as part of her doctoral thesis at the University of Washington and Harvard University.
“The results show that an ice shelf can break under certain circumstances.
It tells us we need to pay attention to this kind of behavior in the future, and it sheds light on how we might describe these breaks in large-scale ice sheet models,” she said.
The problem is that the ice shelf continues to melt.
An ice shelf is a plate of ice that floats on the sea and is fed by glaciers, ice streams and ice caps.
Ice shelves typically rise at least two meters above sea level and are between 200 and 1000 meters thick.
The breaking off of glaciers is called calving, and the iceberg considered in the study has long since broken away.
“Ice shelves have a really important stabilizing influence on the rest of the Antarctic ice sheet,” Olinger continued.
As the study results state, the formation of cracks is similar to breaking glass.
In order to understand the process even better, further research will be launched: “Before we can improve the performance of large-scale ice sheet models and forecasts of future sea level rise, we must have a good, physics-based understanding of the many different processes that influence the stability of the ice shelf influence.” (
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