The Brunt Ice Shelf borders the

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

coast of

Coats Land Coats Land is a region in Antarctica which lies westward of Queen Maud Land and forms the eastern shore of the Weddell Sea, extending in a general northeast–southwest direction between 20°00′W and 36°00′W. The northeast part was discove ...

between Dawson-Lambton Glacier and Stancomb-Wills Glacier Tongue. It was named by the

UK Antarctic Place-names Committee The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (or UK-APC) is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) an ...

after David Brunt, British meteorologist, Physical Secretary of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, 1948–57, who was responsible for the initiation of the Royal Society Expedition to this ice shelf in 1955. It was the location of the base of the Royal Society Expedition, 1955–59 which was taken over as the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Halley Research Station Halley Research Station is a research facility in Antarctica on the Brunt Ice Shelf operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). The base was established in 1956 to study the Earth's atmosphere. Measurements from Halley led to the disco ...

. The Brunt Icefalls () extend along

Caird Coast The Caird Coast is the portion of the coast of Coats Land lying between the terminus of Stancomb-Wills Glacier, in 20º00´W, and the vicinity of the Hayes Glacier, in 27º54´W. Shackleton named it for Sir James Key Caird, patron of the expedi ...

for about , where the steep ice-covered coast descends to Brunt Ice Shelf. The icefalls were discovered on 5 November 1967, in the course of a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Squadron

VXE-6 Antarctic Development Squadron Six (VXE-6 or ANTARCTIC DEVRON SIX, commonly referred to by its nickname, The Puckered Penguins) was a United States Navy air test and evaluation squadron based at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California with forw ...

flight over the coast in LC-130 aircraft, and was plotted by the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

from air photos obtained at that time. It was named by the

Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN or US-ACAN) is an advisory committee of the United States Board on Geographic Names responsible for recommending commemorative names for features in Antarctica. History The committee was established ...

in association with the Brunt Ice Shelf. In 2012 previously stable large chasms (cracks in the ice shelf which clearly go all the way through to the sea) in the ice shelf started expanding which was expected to cause large parts of the Brunt Ice shelf to break off within the next few years On 26 February 2021 a

Iceberg A-74 Iceberg A-74 is an iceberg that calved from the north side of the Antarctic Brunt Ice Shelf in February 2021. Its calving had been anticipated due to large ice rifts that opened up in September 2019 and spread in the Antarctic summer of 2020– ...

duly broke away from the north-facing Shelf, separating from edge of the shelf at the

McDonald Ice Rumples The McDonald Ice Rumples () constitute an ice rise in the Brunt Ice Shelf bordering the Weddell Sea in Antarctica, covering an area of . Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition reported a glacier in this vicinity in January 1915. ...

along the North Rift and finally joining the Brunt-Stancomb chasm. As of 28 February, A-74 was located at 75° 13' South, 25° 41' West and measures on its longest axis and on its widest axis.

References

External links

* Ice shelves of Antarctica Bodies of ice of Coats Land {{CoatsLand-geo-stub

See also

References

External links