greenpeace is campaigning to protect the area with the world 's largest recorded calving in history .
without the protection of the a-68 ’s ice , almost 3,600 sq miles ( 6,000 km ) of antarctic ocean water are now exposed to sunlight and accessible for the first time in more than 120,000 years .
a team of researchers , led by the british antarctic survey , is heading to antarctica this week to investigate a mysterious marine ecosystem that ’s been hidden underneath an antarctic ice shelf for tens of thousands of years .
today ( feb. 14 ) , a team of researchers led by the british antarctic survey ( bas ) , are trying to reach a newly revealed ecosystem that had been hidden for 120,000 years below the larsen c ice shelf on the antarctic peninsula .
in july last year , part of the larsen c ice shelf calved away , forming a huge iceberg - a68 - which is four times bigger than london , and revealing life beneath for the first time .
( photo : british antarctic survey ) scientists are about to explore a part of the world that 's been hidden for 120,000 years .
usa today the international team of researchers will spend 3 weeks on board the research ship rrs james clark ross .
though the event ca n’t be directly attributed to climate change , it is suspicious that the ice receded the fastest it had in years in the months preceding the final break during the dead of winter , when temperatures would normally be their lowest .
now scientists say it is a race against time to explore these new ecosystems before they are transformed by exposure to the light .