World’s largest iceberg breaks off from Antarctica
The iceberg broke off the western side of the Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea, the European Space Agency (ESA) said Wednesday.
The iceberg is shaped like a giant ironing board, measuring around 170 kilometers (105 miles) in length and 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) in width. That makes it slightly larger than the Spanish island of Majorca, ESA said.
Iceberg calving is part of the natural cycle, with huge chunks of ice breaking off the ice shelf at regular intervals. Scientists aren’t attributing this particular break-off to climate change, and instead believe it’s part of the natural cycle of iceberg calving in the region.
Once it melts, the new iceberg will not lead to a sea level rise, because it was part of a floating ice shelf — just like a melting ice cube doesn’t increase the level of the drink in your glass.
That makes icebergs like this different from glaciers or ice sheets, which are found on land, and which do raise global sea levels when they break off into the…
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