Caption by Kathryn Hansen.Trigger points (TrPs) or muscle “knots” are sore spots in soft tissue that cause deep aching. If a shelf disintegrates, glaciers that feed it can flow more quickly out to sea-a process that directly increases sea level. They are important, however, because they buttress land ice and keep it inland. Ice shelves float, so they do not directly contribute to sea level rise. Whether Larsen C will respond in a similar way remains to be seen, but that’s one reason why scientists plan to make observations before and after the next calving event. For example, large and frequent calving events at Larsen B preceded that shelf’s final period of rapid disintegration, which occurred in just six weeks in 2002.

The whole cycle can occur over the span of a few decades.īut calving that happens faster than a shelf can re-advance can mean trouble for an ice shelf. The shelf front retreats and then advances again. They advance into the ocean until a calving event takes place. Shelves are fed by glaciers and ice streams coming from the interior of the continent. When that happens, Larsen C will shed an iceberg about the size of Delaware.Ĭracks and calving of ice from the front of an ice shelf are normal.

While the rift is long and growing longer, it does not yet reach across the entire shelf. The rift in Larsen C measures about 100 meters (300 feet) wide and cuts about half a kilometer (one-third of a mile) deep-completely through to the bottom of the ice shelf. The mission, which makes airborne surveys of changes in polar ice, completed its eighth consecutive Antarctic deployment later that month. NASA scientist John Sonntag snapped the photos on November 10, 2016, during an Operation IceBridge flight. These photographs show close and wide views of the rift from the vantage point of NASA’s DC-8 research aircraft. By November, the arrival of longer days and favorable weather made it possible for scientists to take a closer look. Satellites spotted it in natural-color imagery. In late August 2016, sunlight returned to the Antarctic Peninsula and unveiled a rift across the Larsen C Ice Shelf that had grown longer and deeper over the austral winter.

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