![]() ![]() He said because icebergs are already floating, they do not significantly contribute to sea level rise as they melt. "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," said Alex Brisbourne, a Glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey. In this case, however, scientists say that the formation of A-76 is a result of the "natural cycle" of the Ronne Ice Shelf. Their formation is part of a natural process, although one which can be accelerated by warming air and ocean temperatures due to human-caused climate change.Ĭalving - shown here at the Apusiajik glacier in Greenland - is the term for when an iceberg breaks off. Icebergs form when hunks of ice break off from ice shelves or glaciers and begin to float in open water. "How long this will take and how much the iceberg will fragment before reaching the island, as well as the exact trajectory are hard to predict, though," she told AFP. Last year the berg, by then known as A-68a after a piece snapped off, appeared to be on a collision course with a remote South Atlantic island home to thousands of penguins and seals, threatening to impede their ability to gather food.īut it broke apart before it could cause any damage to the abundant wildlife in the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia.Īnne Braakmann-Folgmann, a researcher in iceberg motion at the School of Earth and Environment at Leeds University, said it was likely A-76 would follow the trajectory of A-68 towards South Georgia. Ice sheets atop Greenland and West Antarctic hold enough frozen water to lift oceans a dozen metres (40 feet), drowning cities and redrawing the planet's coastlines.Īt 5,800 km 2, 350 meters thick and weighing a trillion tons A-68 was one of the largest icebergs ever seen. The monstrous A-68 iceberg calved in 2017 from the Larsen ice shelf, which has warmed faster than any other part of Earth's southernmost continent. It may be a giant, but A-76 is by no means the largest iceberg in recent years. It joins previous world's largest title holder A-23A-approximately 3,880 sq km in size-which has remained in the same area since 1986.Ī-76 was originally spotted by the British Antarctic Survey and the calving-the term used when an iceberg breaks off-was confirmed using images from the Copernicus satellite, the European Space Agency said. The iceberg, measuring around 170 kilometres (105 miles) long and 25 kilometres wide, with an area of 4,320 square kilometres is now floating in the Weddell Sea. Slightly larger than the Spanish island of Majorca, A-76 had been monitored by scientists since May 13 when it began to separate from the Ronne Ice Shelf, according to the US National Ice Center. Icebergs are traditionally named from the Antarctic quadrant in which they were originally sighted, then a sequential number, then, if the iceberg breaks, a sequential letter.Īn animation showing the iceberg breaking off the Ronne Ice Shelf can be accessed here.It is the latest in a series of large ice blocks to dislodge in a region acutely vulnerable to climate change, although scientists said in this case it appeared to be part of a natural polar cycle. The Sentinel-1 mission consists of two polar-orbiting satellites that rely on C-band synthetic aperture radar imaging, returning data regardless of whether it is day or night, allowing us year-round viewing of remote regions like Antarctica. The iceberg was spotted by the British Antarctic Survey and confirmed from the US National Ice Center using Copernicus Sentinel-1 imagery. In comparison, the A-74 iceberg that broke off the Brunt Ice Shelf in February earlier this year, was only 1270 sq km. The enormity of the berg makes it the largest in the world, snatching first place from the A-23A iceberg (approximately 3880 sq km in size) which is also located in the Weddell Sea. ![]() ![]() Spotted in recent images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, the iceberg is around 170 km in length and 25 km wide, and is slightly larger than the Spanish island of Majorca. The iceberg, dubbed A-76, measures around 4320 sq km in size – currently making it the largest berg in the world. An enormous iceberg has calved from the western side of the Ronne Ice Shelf, lying in the Weddell Sea, in Antarctica. ![]()
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