The massive iceberg that recently split off from Antarctica’s Mertz Glacier in the Australian Antarctic Territory might be a driver of future climate change. The Luxembourg-size iceberg broke off from the larger glacier, which is a massive floating ice tongue that drains ice from the larger East Antarctic ice sheet. The iceberg — 78 kilometres long with a surface area of roughly 2,500 square kilometres, broke off the Mertz Glacier after being rammed by another iceberg, 97 kilometres long.
While the world’s climate experts can’t say for sure that the event is linked to climate change, they believe that it could eventually affect ocean circulation. Satellite images show that the recently-calved Mertz iceberg is moving into the Adélie Depression, a coastal basin situated between the Mertz Glacier and the French Antarctic station of Dumont D’Urville to the west. This depression one of the major sites of dense water formation which drives the world’s deep ocean circulation and the distribution of heat.

The Metz Glacier region is of high biodiversity and food concentration for birds and marine mammals, in particular emperor penguins the only birds to reproduce during winter in Antarctica. The emperor colony at Pointe Géologie, next to Dumont d’Urville, is closely dependent on the ocean resources. Significant modifications in the marine environment may have large consequences, not only on the local biodiversity but also on this penguin colony made famous in Luc Jacquet’s movie “March of the Penguins”.

original source: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/