One of the biggest icebergs ever recorded has just broken away from Antarctica. The giant block is estimated to cover an area of roughly 6,000 sq km; that’s about a quarter the size of Wales. A US satellite observed the berg on Wednesday while passing over a region known as the Larsen C Ice Shelf. Scientists were expecting it for more than a decade.
The rift’s propagation had accelerated since 2014, making an imminent calving ever more likely.
The more than 200m-thick tabular berg will not move very far, very fast in the short term. But it will need to be monitored. Currents and winds might eventually push it north of the Antarctic where it could become a hazard to shipping.
An infrared sensor on the American space agency’s Aqua satellite spied clear water in the rift between the shelf and the berg on Wednesday. The water is warmer relative to the surrounding ice and air – both of which are sub-zero.
"The rift was barely visible in these data in recent weeks, but the signature is so clear now that it must have opened considerably along its whole length," explained Prof Adrian Luckman, whose Project Midas at Swansea University has followed the berg’s evolution most closely.
The event was confirmed by other spacecraft such as Europe’s Sentinel-1 satellite-radar system.