What Antarctica’s Massive Iceberg Could Mean for the Future

BU Today

Sometime between Sunday and Tuesday of last week, an iceberg the size of Delaware broke off from Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf and floated into the sea. This isn’t the first time that a chunk of the Larsen shelf has severed, and it may not even be the biggest iceberg ever, but the massive break, and dramatic photos of the 120-mile-long crack that formed it, has captured the public’s imagination and made headlines worldwide. The event appears to many to be an awesome—and terrifying—warning of climate change.
Sean Mackay (GRS’15), a College of Arts & Sciences postdoctoral research associate and a member of BU’s Antarctic Research Group, has an intimate relationship with Antarctica and its ice, having traveled to the continent six times over the past nine years to collect information on ancient climate change from buried glaciers and other sources of old ice. He spoke to BU Today about what the iceberg calving could mean for the future, and what role it might play in rising sea levels. “Sometimes it takes the giant events to get people’s attention,” he says.
The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
“It’s not hyperbole to say that some maps of Antarctica will need to be redrawn,” says glaciologist Sean Mackay, a member of BU’s Antarctic Research Group. Photo by David Marchant
BU Today: What happens to the iceberg now? Is it going to float up to Boston?
Mackay: We don’t really know for sure, but Antarctica has this huge circumpolar sea current, and if the iceberg can reach that current, it will most likely break up into smaller chunks and start flowing north and east. Some estimates say it could reach the Falkland Islands. But when I say it, I mean a piece of it, not the whole shebang. So it’s ...

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