Largest Iceberg The Size Of Delaware Breaks Off In Antarctica

In a rather alarming development, one of the largest icebergs ever recorded has broken off an ice shelf in Antarctica. To get a sense of just how massive this thing is, reports suggest that the iceberg is the size of the state of Delaware. Just in case you were wondering, Delaware has a total area of 1,982 square miles or 5,130 kilometers.

NASA confirmed the calving off of the 2,500 square mile iceberg from the Larsen C ice shelf earlier today. Scientists report that the iceberg was actually floating long before it separated from the ice shelf which is why there has been no immediate impact on the sea level.

The fourth largest ice shelf in Antarctica is called Larsen C. It has a surface area of around 20,000 square miles. They are called ice shelfs because they act as barriers that keep the land-based ice from flowing into the sea and thus drastically increasing sea levels.

Scientists had been closely monitoring this iceberg for months. What was initially just a deep crack starting expanding for over 120 miles. Satellite data gathered on July 6th showed that this giant iceberg was kept attached to the ice shelf with just 2.8 miles of ice.

Some in the scientist community fear that today’s break-off might lead to the eventual collapse of the entire Larsen C ice shelf. It’s not like this hasn’t happened before. The Larsen B shelf was located in the same vicinity and it didn’t even take a full month for the entire ice shelf to completely disintegrate.

No immediate impact of today’s break-off is expected, though. Scientists believe that in the coming months the ice shelf could either eventually regrow or it may see further calving events.

Adnan Farooqui
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