Any loss of ice from the ice shelves is still a loss. He also added that this isn’t always the case, saying that “Elsewhere around the Antarctic continent, however, the warming ocean is melting other ice shelves and this is allowing the ice to drain more quickly off the continent, increasing the rate of sea-level rise”.Īlthough this specific case may not be linked to climate change, experts argue that the separation was still hastened by climate factors, if not directly. Ted also assured in his statement that the iceberg won’t raise the ocean levels either.Īccording to Alex Brisbourne, a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey, “The ice shelf is constantly being fed ice from the Antarctic continent, and eventually, chunks break off the ice shelf in this way, forming these big flat icebergs and maintaining a balance”. The reasoning being that since the portion of the ice shelf was already in the water. According to Ted Scambos, a research glaciologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the separation is not related to climate change and is part of the natural cycle. However, it seems the reasons are different this time. Scientists usually contributed such phenomenon to climate change. According to the US National Ice Center, A-76 began to separate from the Ronne Ice Shelf on May 13th and scientists have been keeping an eye on it since. The iceberg is now being called A-76 and is slightly larger than the Spanish island of Majorca. The iceberg was spotted by ESA’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite which is a land and sea monitoring satellite. It is now floating southeast of South America, in the Weddell Sea. The gigantic island of ice is estimated to be around 1668 square miles in size.
#Largest iceberg breaks off antarctica series
It is the latest in a series of icebergs that have broken from the same region. The process is mostly natural but has accelerated in recent years to the increasing climate change.
![largest iceberg breaks off antarctica largest iceberg breaks off antarctica](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/02/06/12/24388066-0-image-a-23_1580990665777.jpg)
![largest iceberg breaks off antarctica largest iceberg breaks off antarctica](https://vid.alarabiya.net/images/2021/05/20/21c37f06-0aca-4a2b-a185-7ec0a9e64fd0/21c37f06-0aca-4a2b-a185-7ec0a9e64fd0_16x9_1200x676.jpg)
These chunks then begin to float in open waters. Icebergs usually form when huge chunks of ice break off glaciers or ice shelves. According to the European Space Agency or ESA, this might be the world’s largest iceberg right now.
![largest iceberg breaks off antarctica largest iceberg breaks off antarctica](https://www.echo.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Antarctic-ice.jpg)
The iceberg broke off from the Antarctic and is around 70 times the size of Manhattan. Another iceberg breaks off as the climate gets warmer, increasing the amounts of warm air and also increasing the ocean’s temperature.