A huge iceberg has broken out of the Antarctic. The Amery ice plate in eastern Antarctica has lost a chunks five times the size of the island of Malta, according to Copernicus, the EU's Earth observation program.
The area of the D28 called iceberg is therefore about 1582 square kilometers, its mass about 315 billion tons. According to the BBC, the Amery Ice Plate has not lost a major iceberg since the early 1960s. The permanent ice surface is the third largest ice shelf in the Antarctic at about 62,600 square kilometers.
"No reason for an alarm"
However, the demolition of D28 has nothing to do with global warming, said marine researcher Helen Fricker of the Scripps Institute for Oceanography at the BBC. "While there is much to be concerned about in the Arctic, there is no reason for an alert in this particular case," said Fricker.
NewThe new D28 Iceberg (five times the area of Malta ~ or ~ 1582km²) just calved away from Amery ice shelf # Antarctica
Before (20/09) and after (25/09) # Sentinel1 ️ captures processed by @StefLhermitte pic.twitter.com/4uN3Ce6E9D
The breaking off of icebergs in the region is a natural process. This allows the ice sheets to balance. According to satellite data collected since the 1990s, the Amery Ice Sheet is said to be in balance with its environment, even though the surface should have melted heavily during the summer.
Despite its mass, D28 is not the largest iceberg in the area. The A68, which broke off in 2017 from the Larsen Ice Shelf, should be about three times as large. Nevertheless, D28 should continue to be watched so that it does not pose a threat to shipping in the future.