Chinese researchers on the 41st Chinese Antarctic expedition mission have detected a drastic iceberg tsunami near the Zhongshan Station, with waves exceeding one meter in height.
According to researchers at the Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping of Wuhan University in central China's Hubei Province, the abnormal sea waves of the iceberg tsunami were caused by glacial calving and iceberg overturning.
"We can see here that there are some slight high-frequency vibrations on the water surface. Based on video files of the station, we speculate this abnormal phenomenon was caused by the flipping or capsizing of an iceberg, which led to abnormal oscillations in the sea water," said Ke Hao, deputy director of the Polar Remote Sensing Laboratory of the center.
This year, the tidal monitoring systems at the Zhongshan Station have recorded increasingly frequent seawater oscillations -- eight days in January and near-daily occurrences in February, indicating fast ice melt near the station.
"Melting icebergs would shift their center of gravity, causing rolls or capsizes that generate meter-scale waves, often one-meter or two-meter high," Ke said.
Long-term data at the station reveal that glacial disintegration in Antarctica is accelerating. Particularly, iceberg calving has become more and more frequent at the Dalk Glacier in Prydz Bay, a Chinese research area, according to Ke.
"The gap between the first and the second calvings was seven years, while the third calving occurred only two years after the second one. We can see here that the collapse of the end of the Dalk Glacier is accelerating," Ke said.
Iceberg tsunamis pose risks to Antarctic expedition. In March 14, 2019, a serious tsunami damaged the station's Panda Terminal, sweeping containers into the sea and destroying maritime observation equipment.
As February is a peak season for iceberg tsunamis, researchers at the station have strengthened monitoring to ensure timely issuance of early warnings if an iceberg tsunami hits the station, and thus mitigate losses.
China's 41st Antarctic expedition team set sail on Nov 1, 2024, starting a mission expected to last nearly seven months.
China has established five research bases in Antarctica over the past nearly 40 years -- the Great Wall Station, the Zhongshan Station, the Kunlun Station, the Taishan Station and the Qinling Station.
Iceberg tsunami strikes near China's Zhongshan Station in Antarctica
