The world’s largest iceberg, larger than the state of Rhode Island, has just broken off in Antarctica. The iceberg, 105 miles long and 15 miles wide, is now floating on the Weddell Sea, where British explorer Ernest Shackleton lost his ship Endurance to pack ice in 1915.
The iceberg was spotted by satellites from the European Space Agency as it calved from the western edge of Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf. It is named A-76, after the Antarctic quadrant where it was first seen. The ESA issued a picture showing that the iceberg, measuring 1,667 square miles, is larger than the Spanish island of Majora (above).
Satellites will continue to monitor the iceberg as ocean currents could carry it toward the British island of South Georgia. The National Ice Center, run by the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard and NOAA, follows all major icebergs. It traced an iceberg 100 miles long and 30 miles wide that broke off of the Antarctic Peninsula in 2017. That iceberg got close to South Georgia island but grounded off the coast and broke in to pieces.
Scientists say that the calving of A-76 was not due to climate change, but was part of the natural cycle of calving in the region; huge chunks of ice break off the ice shelf there in regular intervals.
The iceberg also will not lead to a rise in sea level because it already was floating in water as part of the ice shelf. It is different from glaciers or ice sheets that start on land and do raise water levels when they break off into the ocean. Read more:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/19/world/iceberg-a-76-antarctica-intl/index.html
