A-38
A-38 was the name of a huge iceberg that broke off the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica on October 13, 1998 .
Emergence
The approximately 150 km × 35 km (5,250 km², about twice the size of Saarland ) large and around 1,080 gigatons heavy ice island A-38, which separated from the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf west of Berkner Island , broke on October 22nd In 1998 into two unequal parts that drifted north out onto the Weddell Sea .
Such large icebergs detach from the Antarctic roughly every 40 to 50 years. A process of this type can be spread over several years, whereby several icebergs or ice islands can detach from the continent or ice shelf ( calving ).
The name A-38 was given by the National Ice Center of the United States. A denotes icebergs in the first quadrant between 0 degrees and 90 degrees west longitude, which are then numbered in ascending order. A-38 is therefore the 38th large iceberg recorded in the first quadrant.
Rescue operation
After the A-38 broke off, the then unoccupied German Filchner summer station was on the newly formed iceberg. A rescue operation, which began at the beginning of February 1999, was immediately initiated for the research station located on the area that had not yet been broken off from the ice shelf. The station was recovered in ten days and loaded onto the research vessel Polarstern on February 13th . A total of around 120 tons of station material and around 50 tons of equipment such as snow groomers and sledges were picked up.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ New iceberg breaks off the Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica. (No longer available online.) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , October 15, 1999, archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; Retrieved May 8, 2013 .