A MASSIVE ice shelf bigger than New York City collapsed and broke off from Antarctica after record high temperatures.
The 460 sq mile chunk of ice fell into the ocean in a first-of-its-kind event seen by scientists in the region.
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It was vastly bigger than New York City, which is 300 sq miles.
The fall happened last Thursday as temperatures rose to -11.8C, more than 40C warmer than usual in some spots of East Antarctica.
Satellite photos show the area had been rapidly shrinking over the last few years.
Ice shelves hold back snow and ice from falling into the ocean and causing sea levels to rise. They take thousands of years to form.
The collapsed chunk of ice was holding in the Conger and Glenzer glaciers from the warmer water.
Scientists said the warmer weather events were related to heat and moisture moving poleward, as well as winds coming from Australia.
Prof Alex Sen Gupta said: “We have had a combination of strong weather systems over the Southern Ocean to the south of Australia that aligned to produce very strong polewards winds stretching from Australia to eastern Antarctica.”
Monash University’s Prof Julie Arblaster added that an atmospheric river was also a factor.
She said: “These are rivers of moisture in the air that bring warm and moist air to certain locations, and there was a really significant one occurring in that region over Antarctica.”
University of Minnesota glaciologist Peter Neff added: “The climate is incredibly variable but this was off-scale.”
The continent lost an average of 149 billion tonnes of ice per year from 2002 to 2020, according to NASA.
Australia’s Casey station, the closest to the collapsed ice shelf, recorded 5.6C last week – 10C warmer than normal.
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