![]() ![]() The short video below shows the full calving event sequence and the birth of the iceberg A-76.īased on the data from the European Space Agency, the largest active iceberg title was previously held by a chunk of ice known as A-23A. The latest satellite image below shows that iceberg A-76 has moved slightly further out into the Weddell Sea, but remains fairly stationary. It serves as a good comparison of the size of the iceberg to Spain or Italy. To give you another perspective of its size, you can see the island of Mallorca marked on the map below. Also added is the size comparison to the island of Majorca (Mallorca), which is actually smaller in area than the iceberg A-76. The image below shows the iceberg fully detached from the ice shelf, and floating into the Weddell Sea. Iceberg A-76 fully detached in the next days, becoming a free-floating mass of ice. It is currently the largest iceberg in the world. The 4,320 square kilometers (1,660 square miles) iceberg has been named A-76, after the Antarctic “A” quadrant where it broke off. This finger-shaped block of ice is around 170 kilometers (105 miles) long and around 25 kilometers (15 miles) wide. This detached the entire block of ice from the ice shelf, and the largest iceberg in the world was born. This is the breaking point, where the iceberg will detach from the ice shelf.Ī few days later, the crack widened, and the ice mass started to break off on the eastern side. You can already see a large crack forming from west to east. The satellite image below shows the edge of the Ronne Ice Shelf in early May. A large chunk of ice can break off, creating a floating mass of ice (an iceberg). As the edge of the glacier moves into the ocean or a lake, it becomes unstable as it is no longer supported by solid land. Calving is most common when a glacier edge moves into the water.īelow is an image that shows a simplified example of calving. Calving is a term for the mechanical loss (breaking off) of ice from a glacier edge. These ice-breaking events are known as calving. The Sentinel-1 satellite from the European Space Agency scanned the area on May 13 and confirmed a giant slab of ice breaking away from the shelf. It was the first organization to notice the breaking and cracks on the ice shelf. The first signs that something big was happening, were detected by the British Antarctic Survey. The south pole is one of the driest places on Earth, behind the Saharan desert.Īntarctica is known for producing large icebergs, as they break off its ice shelves and ice sheets. The image below shows the average daily precipitation in the past 40 years, where we can see the wet and dry zones around the world. The small amount of snow that does fall, builds up over hundreds and thousands of years to form its large, thick ice sheets. If all would somehow melt, it would raise the global sea level by almost 60 meters (200ft).Īntarctica is in fact a desert because it receives very little precipitation. Around 61% of all fresh water on Earth is stored in the Antarctic ice sheet. It covers about 98% of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth. You can see the rapid freezing of the ocean surface and sea-ice formation, as the Southern Hemisphere is heading toward winter.īut the main ice mass is the vast ice sheet over the continent. The video below shows the sea-ice concentration around Antarctica, from February till May. Together with the continental ice sheets, it forms the south polar icecap. It freezes towards winter and melts over summer, just like in the Arctic Ocean. Our story happens in northwest Antarctica, on the western edge of the Ronne Ice Shelf.Īntarctica is also surrounded by sea-ice, which is basically a frozen ocean. The image below shows the landscape of Antarctica, with the main ice shelves marked. The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was in Antarctica, at -89.4☌ (-129☏). It is the coldest place on Earth with an average winter temperature of -34.4☌ (-30☏). But first, let’s quickly look at some interesting facts about Antarctica.Īntarctica is Earth’s fifth-largest continent and is covered almost completely in ice. It is much larger than the state of Rhode Island and is over 70-timers larger than Manhattan, NY. The iceberg is named A-76, as it broke off in the A sector of Antarctica. It is over 4,300 square kilometers in size and is now the largest iceberg in the world. An enormous iceberg broke off the Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica, moving into the Weddell Sea.
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