ANTARCTICA ICEBERG FOX NEWS SERIES

Methane and hydrogen sulfide associated with cold seeps is suspected as the source of the chemical energy powering the ecosystem. Antarctic Program scientists were in the north-western Weddell Sea investigating the sediment record in a deep glacial trough of roughly 1,000,000 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi) (twice the size of Texas or France). The collapse of Larsen B has revealed a thriving chemotrophic ecosystem 800 m (half a mile) below the sea. The ice shelf originally covered an area of 85,000 square kilometres (33,000 sq mi), but following the disintegration in the north and the break away of iceberg A-17, it now covers an area of 67,000 square kilometres (26,000 sq mi). A large section of the Larsen C shelf broke away in July 2017 to form an iceberg known as A-68. The breakup of the ice shelf since the mid-1990s has been widely reported, with the collapse of Larsen B in 2002 being particularly dramatic. Further south, Larsen D and the much smaller Larsen E, F and G are also named. From north to south, the segments are called Larsen A (the smallest), Larsen B, and Larsen C (the largest) by researchers who work in the area.

ANTARCTICA ICEBERG FOX NEWS SERIES

In finer detail, the Larsen Ice Shelf is a series of shelves that occupy (or occupied) distinct embayments along the coast. It is named after Captain Carl Anton Larsen, the master of the Norwegian whaling vessel Jason, who sailed along the ice front as far as 68☁0' South during December 1893. The Larsen Ice Shelf is a long ice shelf in the northwest part of the Weddell Sea, extending along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula from Cape Longing to Smith Peninsula. Location of the Antarctic Peninsula within Antarctica

Antarctica iceberg fox news