A-76-the world’s biggest iceberg has broken off of Antarctica, the European Union’s Copernicus Sentinel satellite shows.
- The finger-shaped chunk of ice, which is roughly 170 kilometers long and 25 kilometers wide, was spotted by satellites as it calved from the western side of Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf.
- The iceberg is now floating freely on the Weddell Sea, a large bay in the western Antarctic.
- The Antarctica ice sheet is warming faster than the rest of the planet, causing melting of snow and ice covers as well as the retreat of glaciers, especially around the Weddell Sea.
- Since the ice shelf that this berg calved from was already floating on water, the event won’t directly impact sea levels, says the Live Science.
What is an iceberg?
- An iceberg is ice that broke off from glaciers or shelf ice and is floating in open water.
- According to the US-NOAA, to be classified as an iceberg, the height of the ice must be greater than 16 feet above sea level and the thickness must be 98-164 feet and the ice must cover an area of at least 5,382 square feet.
- There are smaller pieces of ice known as “bergy bits” and “growlers.”
