A map shows an iceberg detachment from the Larsen C Ice Shelf.[/caption]A massive sheet of ice the size of Delaware has broken off from Antarctica — becoming a 1 trillion-ton iceberg that is one of the largest ever recorded.
The iceberg is roughly 2,239 square miles in diameter and is currently floating in the Southern Ocean, not far from the Larsen C ice shelf from which it broke away sometime between July 10 and 12, according to researchers at Swansea University and the British Antarctic Survey.
“It may remain in one piece but is more likely to break into fragments,” said Swansea University professor Adrian Luckman.
“Some of the ice may remain in the area for decades, while parts of the iceberg may drift north into warmer waters,” he told Reuters.
Luckman, who serves as lead investigator of Project MIDAS — a group that’s been monitoring the ice shelf since the 1990s — said the break was unlike anything he’d seen before.
“The iceberg is one of the largest recorded, and its future progress is difficult to predict,” he said.
While many are blaming climate change as the cause, Luckman and other experts say that’s not true in this instance. The iceberg, which likely will be named A68, was expected to shear off Antarctica for quite some time.
“Ice shelves buttress glaciers around Antarctica. Their break-up causes the rapid flow of glacial ice into the sea,” NASA scientist Dr. Thomas Wagner told Forbes last month, as his team prepared for the break.
“This process is considered the No. 1 potential trigger of rapid sea-level rise.”
According to researchers, the biggest concern with Antarctica and the Larsen C ice shelf is that the latest calving has left it unstable, seeing how the loss reduced its area by more than 12 percent.
“If Larsen C now starts to retreat significantly and eventually collapses, then we will see another contribution to sea-level rise,” David Vaughan, glaciologist and director of science at British Antarctic Survey told Reuters.
