Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder and lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, said the ice shelf’s collapse was likely a culmination of the…
An ice shelf in Antarctica nearly the size of Los Angeles disintegrated in mid-March within days of extraordinary warmth on the continent, scientists say. The Conger Ice Shelf, spanning approximately 460 square miles, collapsed around March 15. It was around the time temperatures soared to minus-12 degrees Celsius, more than 40 degrees warmer than normal, at the Concordia research station. “I don’t think there has been a shelf collapse like this in East Antarctica since we’ve been able to receive satellite data,” Rob Larter, a marine geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey, told CNN. “Conger is a very small ice shelf which has been decreasing in size for many years and this was just the final step which caused it to collapse.” Antarctica is the coldest, iciest place on Earth, which makes the recent warming event particularly worrying for many scientists. Just a month ago, data showed Antarctica would set a record this year for lowest sea-ice extent — the area of ocean covered by sea ice around the continent. Ice shelves like the Conger are extensions of land-based ice sheets and glaciers that jut out over the ocean. They help prevent those ice sheets from feeding ice unabated into the ocean. When a shelf collapses, there tends to be an increase in the ice that flows from the land into the ocean, which leads to sea level rise — a phenomenon that threatens coastal communities around the world. Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder and lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, said the ice shelf’s collapse was likely a culmination of the record low sea ice conditions and the wave action hitting the shelf during the recent warm period, which was spurred by a strong winds from the warmer north.
