A huge iceberg more than 15 times the size of Paris broke off from Antarctica on Sunday, British scientists said on Monday, News.ro reported. This phenomenon is not related to climate change, although the region is threatened by warming, according to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

The 1,550 square kilometer block of ice broke off from the ice sheet between 7pm and 8pm local time on Sunday after a strong wave widened a pre-existing crack in the ice called Chasm-1, the research body said. statement.

Two years ago, an iceberg of almost the same size had already formed in the same area, known as the Brant Barrier, where the British Halley VI research station is located.

Experts, who are on site from November to March, have been watching the evolution of large cracks in the ice for the past ten years, and in 2016 BAS decided to move the station by about 20 kilometers, fearing it would be caught in an iceberg drift. , as a result of ice melting.

“This disconnection was expected and is the natural behavior of the Brant barrier. It has nothing to do with climate change,” explained glaciologist Dominic Hodgson, quoted in the release.

However, the continent, like other parts of the planet, is suffering from the effects of global warming with record temperatures last year.

In February 2022, the ice extent reached its lowest level in 44 years of satellite observations, according to the annual report of the European Copernicus Climate Change Program.

In 2021, the complete melting of an iceberg 4,000 km north of the place where it broke off from the ice in 2017 has led to the release of more than 150 billion tons of fresh water, rich in nutrients, which has worried scientists about the impact of this phenomenon on the fragile ecosystem, reminds AFP .