Iceberg calves off King Baudouin Ice Shelf
A 70-square-kilometer chunk of ice broke off from the King Baudouin Ice Shelf in January 2015. A growing rift near the edge of the glacier was visible to satellites for several weeks before the ice finally broke loose. The new iceberg is now drifting in Breid Bay off of Queen Maud Land. The formation of new icebergs from ice shelves is a normal process. Ice shelves are platforms of floating ice that extend out over the water from ice sheets on land. As snowfall adds mass to the ice sheet, its glaciers flow naturally seaward and chunks inevitably break off. Since ice shelves are already floating on the ocean, an iceberg that calves from an ice shelf does not affect sea level.
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Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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