At Its Breaking Point - Antarctica Ice Shelf Collapse

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 After years of thinning and surface heating as a result of global warming, the 1,200 km2 Conger Ice Shelf in East Antarctica finally collapsed. This happened on the 15th of March, following extreme increases in temperature of as high as 40 degrees C above the normal seasonal warm temperatures (Lu, 2022). Satellite images from MODIS and Landsat below reveal the extent of damage on the ice shelf which occurred within a timeframe of only 2 months. 

Image on the left shows Conger ice shelf in February 2022; Image on the right shows state of the ice shelf in March 2022.
Source: Catherine Colello Walker on Twitter

NASA scientist Catherine Colello Walker stated that the Conger ice shelf has been shrinking since the mid-2000s but it was only this year that there were noticeable and drastic changes to the surface area. Increasing temperatures and extreme heat, termed the March Heatwave, leading to surface melting were quoted to be one of the factors driving this collapse, which is similar to what resulted in the collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf in 2002 (Lu, 2022). According to Peter Neff, a glaciologist at the University of Minnesota, the March Heatwave is also possibly tied to the Atmospheric River phenomenon (Binnie, 2022). Briefly explained, atmospheric rivers are "rivers in the sky" that move with the weather and transport water vapour outside of the tropics, eventually releasing the water vapour in the form of rain or snow (NOAA, 2015). This results in the variability of climate in the Antarctic region, although Neff also reported that this is an unusual pattern of variability. This time round, the warming was found to be twice as extreme as predicted (Binnie, 2022).  This collapse has been regarded as minuscule compared to the total area of ice on Earth as this does not significantly impact or increase the sea level. However, this is an example of the more extreme weather events to come, and we can only expect ice calving to happen at larger extents leading to higher sea-level rise if global warming continues to happen at this pace. 

References: 

Binnie, I. (2022, March 25). Thinning Antarctic ice shelf finally crumbles after heatwave. REUTERS. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/thinning-antarctic-ice-shelf-finally-crumbles-after-heatwave-2022-03-25/

Lu, D. (2022, March 25). Satellite data shows entire Conger ice shelf has collapsed in Antarctica. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/25/satellite-data-shows-entire-conger-ice-shelf-has-collapsed-in-antarctica

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2015, December). What are atmospheric rivers? NOAA. https://www.noaa.gov/stories/what-are-atmospheric-rivers

Walker, C. C. [CapComCatWalk]. (2022, March 25). Complete collapse of East Antarctica’s Conger Ice Shelf (~1200 sq. km) ~March 15, seen in combo of #Landsat and #MODIS [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/CapComCatWalk/status/1507137389432434739?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1507137389432434739%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2022%2Fmar%2F25%2Fsatellite-data-shows-entire-conger-ice-shelf-has-collapsed-in-antarctica




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