A 44km chasm has appeared on the floating Brunt ice shelf in Antarctica where a British research station is located.
The crack is 17km from the station and appeared last October. Scientists have been keeping an eye on it ever since.
Even after using satellite imaging and GPS, they’re unsure what will happen to the crack during Antarctica’s winter, so the station will be shut down from March to November as a precaution.
We just got the news today – Pretty hard to take but understand and support the decision. Antarctica wins this battle (though not he war) https://t.co/rVnypMBWjC
— Neil Spencer (@HalleyVIDoc) January 16, 2017
According to the British Antarctic Survey, if something went wrong suddenly an evacuation of the Halley VI research centre would be too difficult.
Halley VI was only finished in 2012, and is the first of the Halley stations to be moveable. It can come apart, and will eventually be towed to a new location.
