Larsen C Iceberg: Trillion-tonne iceberg breaks off Antarctica

One of the biggest icebergs in history has snapped off the West Antarctic ice shelf, according to scientists who have been monitoring a growing crack for months.


Satellite images confirmed that the trillion-tonne iceberg had broken away and was adrift at sea.

"The calving occurred sometime between Monday, July 10 and Wednesday, July 12, when a 5,800-square kilometre section of the ice shelf finally broke away," the Swansea University said in a statement on Wednesday.

The massive sheet of ice with an area nearly as large as the size of the US state of Delaware had been developing a crack across the Larsen C ice shelf over the past few years.

Ice shelves are floating masses of ice, hundred metres thick, that are fed by slow-flowing glaciers from the land.

Several ice shelves have cracked around northern parts of Antarctica in recent years.

By itself, the massive iceberg will not add to sea levels when it melts, but scientists worry about the effects it will have on inland glaciers.
 [aljazeera.com]
 12/7/17
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Related 6/1/17:

• Antarctique: un iceberg géant sur le point de se détacher de la Barrière de Larsen