Though the news is quite old, in around 2019, a giant glacier named D28 broke apart from the eastern part of the Antarctica continent. But people somewhere tend to align this incidence with climate change. So, if not climate change then who is the culprit?
LET’S KNOW A BIT ABOUT ICEBERG D28 FIRST…
D28 is a part of the Amery ice shelf which is the third-largest ice shelf in Antarctica continent.
It weighs around 315 billion tonnes and is greater than the area of London city.
The name D28 comes from a classification system run by the US National Ice Centre, which divides the Antarctic into quadrants. The D quadrant covers the longitudes 90 degrees East to 0 degrees, the Prime Meridian.
Now comes the actual reason why it parted away with the main continent?
So, basically, the Amery shelf is essentially the floating extension of a number of glaciers that flow off the land into the sea. The ice streams maintain equilibrium by losing such icebergs to balance the input of snow upstream. This would also pave way for ships and seafarers to a greater extent.
To conclude, the breaking of iceberg D28 is part of the normal cycle of ice shelves, which are an extension of the ice cap thus the event is not related to climate change and just to maintain the equilibrium cycle of the iceshelf.
