It took only 3 days for a huge lake in the Antarctic to disappear! In June 2019, the ice shelf beneath the lake collapsed, sending an estimated 21 to 26 billion cubic feet (736 million cubic meter) of water into the ocean.
Glaciologist Roland Warner of the University of Tasmania was monitoring the wildfires in Australia when he decided to take a look at satellite imagery to the south. "Looking down to Antarctica, for a break from watching the destruction, I noticed a spell of several clear days on Amery Ice Shelf and decided to see how the summer surface melt season was progressing," he tells Vice. "The collapsed surface feature caught my eye."
Just to give you an idea of the scale, 21 to 26 billion cubic feet of water is twice the volume of the San Diego Bay, or is about 295,000 Olympic size swimming pool!
#Antarctica #iceshelf #satelliteimagery #ocean #lake #ClimateChange
Image: Geophysical Research Letters