An Antarctic iceberg as big as fifteen times Paris broke away a few days ago, scientists said, but the event is part of the normal ice-cap cycle, they say.
The iceberg dubbed D28 broke away from the Amery ice barrier on the east of the continent between September 24 and 25, according to observations from two satellites, one European and the other American. Nasa. It measures 1,582 km², according to the European program Copernicus. It is about 210 meters thick and contains 315 billion tons of ice, said the American glaciologist Helen Amanda Fricker.
"But this event is not a sign of climate change"
These figures may seem impressive, but iceberg production is part of the normal cycle of ice barriers, which is an extension of the icecap on the water, she warns. "Ice barriers need to lose weight because they are constantly gaining weight, they want to keep their size," Helen Amanda Fricker, a professor at the Scripps Oceanography Center at the University of California, told AFP. San Diego. The gain in mass comes from the snow falling on the continent and the glaciers (rivers of ice) that move slowly towards the shores.
It is crucial to remember that eastern Antarctica is different from the west of the continent and from Greenland, which are warming at high speed due to climate change. "It's really important to avoid confusion for the general public, it's not due to climate change," says the scientist. A three times larger iceberg broke up two years ago in Antarctica, she recalls, which created a certain panic at the time. "The ice cap must lose mass, it's normal".
"It's difficult to explain because we do not want people to believe that climate change does not exist, but this event is not a sign of climate change," concludes Helen Amanda Fricker.