The British Antarctic Survey has a job in the form of an enormous crack in the East Antarctic frosting sheet . inactive for about 35 geezerhood , The Crack began to maturate in 2012 . Today , it jeopardise to cleave off the entire chalk ledge supporting the Halley VI research place . And so , Halley VI is being tow out of damage ’s way .
“ If [ the gap ] continues to move and the internal-combustion engine break off , the post would be on the faulty side of the crack , ” Athena Dinar , a interpreter for the British Antarctic Survey , told Gizmodo when asked why the meteoric post isbeing moved14 miles ( 23 kilometers ) inland . If The Crack is simply ignored , Halley VI could twist up adrift in the sea .
Installed in 2012 to meditate extreme space weather and ozone , Halley VI is located on the 150 metre - thick Brunt Ice Shelf , a dynamic region of the East Antarctic Methedrine plane that flows toward the ocean at approximately 0.25 miles ( 0.4 kilometer ) per year . Here , and elsewhere along Antarctica ’s leeway , the slow migration of glacier pushes ice shelves out over the undefended ocean , a minute like a diving plank being unfurled over a swimming pool . Eventually , a buildup of stress make these chicken feed shelves break off and sort iceberg , a process known as calving .
Fortunately , the British Antarctic Survey was mindful of the dangers of calving when it set up Halley VI ; the belated in a long line of Antarctic research station that lead to the find of the ozone hole . consequently , Halley VI was design to be roving . Each of the place ’s eight module can be decoupled from its neighbors and towed across the icing on tractors , which is just what ’s happening now that Antarctic is emerging from months of wintry darkness .
The process of moving the station is expect to take three years .
“ Halley was design and engineered specifically to be re - located in reception to changes in the meth , ” Tim Stockings , director of operations at the British Antarctic Survey suppose in a statement . “ Over the last couple of years our operational teams have been punctilious in spring up very detailed plan for the move and we are agitate by the challenge . ”
Unlike West Antarctica ’s coastline , where methamphetamine hydrochloride is being lose at a more rapid clip due to clime variety , the Brunt Ice Shelf has not receive significant warming , and it has shown no signs of increase calving in recent years . The Crack , however menacing , is likely utterly natural .
[ British Antarctic Survey ]
AntarcticaClimateScience
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