"Contingency plans are in place should ice conditions change significantly before departure of staff from the station," the British Antarctic Survey told The Washington Post in a statement. ![]() Under those conditions, it would be more dangerous to launch a rescue mission if the cracks and chasms were to compromise the safety of researchers at Halley VI.Ĭurrently, staff members are preparing to leave for winter 2019. Part of that monitoring has included the precautionary measure of closing down operations at the research station for the past three Antarctic winters, which feature months of darkness and heavy snowfall. Its current location is outside the predicted iceberg mass, but a spokesman at the British Antarctic Survey said researchers are monitoring changes to the structural integrity of the ice shelf. On the Brunt, there is no immediate threat to Halley VI or the people who inhabit it. In that region, scientists say climate change has a clear role. Research shows that on the west side of the continent, where waters are warmer than those surrounding Brunt, the ice shelves are thinning from below. "This is how Antarctica works," Prof Fricker said. Floating ice shelves fringe the coasts of the continent, growing upwards and outwards as heavy snows fall. Iceberg calving is a normal, natural process that helps maintain Antarctica's net land mass. But it's in another region of Antarctica." "That isn't to say Antarctica isn't undergoing rapid changes that are linked to climate change. "I don't think you can link one calving event to climate change," Prof Fricker said. Scientists have been studying glacier shelves for only a little over 100 years, so it is difficult to say whether icebergs are calving at a higher rate at this location on the Brunt Ice Shelf, said Professor Helen Fricker, a glaciologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. A new rift (Halloween crack) formed it what was thought to be a pretty stable ice shelf." ![]() ![]() "The impact on the area is that these rifts have reactivated, and we're not sure why.
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