Renewable Revolution

LAST UPDATED ON FEBRUARY 15TH, 2018 AT 2:36 PM BY TIBI PUIU

SNIPPET:


Last year, one of the largest icebergs in history broke off broke off from the Larsen C ice. The massive 2,200-square-mile iceberg called A-68 has exposed an ecosystem that has been hidden beneath the ice for thousands of years.

Now, a diverse team made up of scientists from nine research institutes around the world is urgently traveling to the area where the iceberg calved to probe the seabed before it’s too late.

A daring expedition and lifeforms removed from time

The researchers are supposed to leave from the Falkland Islands to the calving site on 21 February, where they will spend three weeks until March 2018 on board the research ship RRS James Clark Ross.

The A-68 iceberg is one of the largest ever observed on Earth. It’s about as big as the state of Delaware and holds four times more ice than what gets melted from Greenland’s ice sheet in a year. Scientists had been preparing for A-68’s split from Larsen C for months before the calving, ever since they witnessed a crack in the ice shelf extending over 100 miles in length.

Full article:

https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/hidden-antarctic-ecosystem-0432432/