Discovered a huge crack in the Antarctic glacier

A large fissure with a length of nearly 30 km was discovered on a glacier in Antarctica and this is a sign that a giant iceberg larger than New York City is about to form.

>>>Video: Detecting a crack in the Antarctic glacier

Huge cracked hole seen from NASA aircraft.

While conducting an aerial survey of Antarctica, the scientists happened to find the crack on the Pine Island glacier located west of Antarctica. Pine Island is also one of the largest Antarctic rivers.

Scientists on a NASA DC-8 plane are carrying out the Pine Island glacier measurement and its ice shelf, seeing fissures on October 14.

The NASA team measured the longitudinal cracks about 29km long and 79m wide. The widest position of the fissure is about 250m and the deepest point is nearly 61m. The ice shelf around the fissure is about 500m thick.

The crack is nearly 30km long.

"We are really seeing how the crack is happening ," said Michael Studinger, a scientist from the Antarctic survey project called NASA's IceBridge Campaign.

The crack above will separate a giant ice block from the glacier. NASA predicts that when the separation process is complete, an iceberg of 880 square kilometers will form, larger than New York City's area (780km ² ).

This is the first time in 10 years such a phenomenon occurred on Pine Island glacier. Previously, a large crack was discovered in this glacier and then "born" a giant iceberg in 2001.

Glaciers often 'lay ' off icebergs. However, scientists fear that warming temperatures may destabilize Antarctic and Greenland glaciers by eroding ice shelves, which are tied to the continent.

Close up of fissures.

Without ice shelves, glaciers will flow to the sea faster, causing sea levels to rise.

Pine Island scientists are 'the biggest source of global sea level rise , ' NASA said in a statement.

NASA predicts that a giant iceberg will eventually break out of the Pine Island state river in the coming months as the Southern Hemisphere is entering the summer.

But if icebergs formed, the area of ​​880 square kilometers was not a record in Antarctica. Several other icebergs that had previously surpassed several thousand km ² and a record of giant icebergs amounted to 31,400 km ² was discovered in 1956.