According to a study, <\/span>the A68 iceberg that split off from Antarctica\u2019s Larsen C ice shelf in <\/span>2017<\/span> was likely caused due to <\/span>ice-shelf dynamics and not climate change.<\/span><\/p>\n Ice shelves are massive stretches of ice that build up over many thousands of years.<\/span><\/p>\n Global warming contributes to the weakening of ice shelves as warmer ocean water erodes the underbelly of the ice shelves while rising air temperatures weaken them from above.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But this theory did not fit well with the <\/span>A68 iceberg that split off from Antarctica\u2019s Larsen C ice shelf in <\/span>2017<\/span>. This is <\/span>because the ice had been frozen solid for months.<\/span><\/p>\n To find the reason, NASA scientists studied the ice melange which has natural properties similar to glue: It fills cracks or gaps and sticks to ice and rock. When it accumulates in a crack in an ice shelf, it creates a layer \u2014 thin but as hard as the surrounding ice \u2014 that holds the crack together.<\/span><\/p>\n However, scientists observed that the layers of ice m\u00e9lange melt when it comes in contact with the ocean water below. This process continues through the year, and the melange becomes too thin to keep holding the ice shelf together.<\/span><\/p>\n Hence, this might be the reason for the Larsen C Ice Shelf split, despite having frozen ice for months.<\/span><\/p>\n S<\/b>ource:<\/b> This post is based on the article <\/span>\u201cWhy did the Antarctic Larsen C ice shelf break in 2017? NASA has an answer\u201d <\/b>published in <\/span>Down To Earth <\/b>on<\/span> 13th October 2021.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is the News? According to a study, the A68 iceberg that split off from Antarctica\u2019s Larsen C ice shelf in 2017 was likely caused due to ice-shelf dynamics and not climate change. What is the issue? Ice shelves are massive stretches of ice that build up over many thousands of years. Global warming contributes… Continue reading Why did the Antarctic Larsen C ice shelf break in 2017? NASA has an answer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1738,9],"tags":[10305,8814,9993],"class_list":["post-141213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","category-public","tag-a68-iceberg","tag-changes-in-critical-geographical-features","tag-sea-ice-change","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704748994},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is the issue?<\/b><\/h5>\n
Then what was the reason for the Larsen C ice shelf split?<\/b><\/h5>\n