Unusual warm winds have led to a spike in late-season surface melt at the ice shelf.
The Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica, from which a Delaware-size iceberg broke away two years ago, could be at risk of collapse. Scientists recorded a spike in late-season surface melt of snow and ice, which they said was being driven by warm, dry winds coming from mountains in the Antarctic Peninsula.
In a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, Tri Datta, from the University of Maryland, and colleagues used data from the last 35 years, including information from weather stations and satellite observations. From this, they were able to work out patterns in the surface melt of ice and snow at Larsen C. They discovered that between 2015 and 2017, there was a spike in melting as a result of warm, dry winds blowing across the ice at the end of the summer melt season.
While three years cannot constitute a trend, should it continue it could have major ramifications for the stability of Larsen C, the team concluded. She said it is not clear if the warm winds contributed to the major calving event in 2017, but that the iceberg broke away toward the east of the ice sheet, while the winds mainly affected the west. “Most experts on the subject have suggested that this calving event is actually a product of normal processes,” she added.
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