We recently reported that a massive trillion-tonne Iceberg twice the size of Luxembourg was hanging on by a thread. Upon examination of the latest satellite data from the area, scientists have found that it has now split off from the Larsen C segment of the Larsen Ice Shelf.

This calving means that the Larsen C ice shelf is now more than 12% smaller in area than before, and researchers say that this has left the Larsen C ice shelf at its lowest extent ever recorded and changed the entire landscape of the Antarctic peninsula.

“It is a really major event in terms of the size of the ice tablet that we’ve got now drifting away,” said Anna Hogg, an expert in satellite observations of glaciers from the University of Leeds.

The new iceberg, which will probably be named A68, is a massive 5,800 sq. km, half the size of the record-holding iceberg B-15 which split off from the Ross Ice Shelf in 2000. The “A68” is however believed to be among the 10 largest icebergs ever recorded.

While the massive crack that spawned the new iceberg grew over a period of three years, the rift grew by 17km in the period 25 May and 31 May, which is the largest increase in size since January. The movement of the ice sped up between 24 June and 27 June, reaching a massive rate of 10 metres per day.

Data collected mere days before the iceberg calved revealed that the rift had branched multiple times. According to Adrian Luckman, professor of glaciology at Swansea University and leader of the UK’s Midas project which is focused on the state of the ice shelf, the massive floating iceberg will most probably break into smaller pieces over time.

Martin Siegert, professor of geosciences at Imperial College London and co-director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change & Environment said that “There is enough ice in Antarctica that if it all melted, or even just flowed into the ocean, sea levels [would] rise by 60 metres.”

Siegert was also quick to point out though that the calving of the new iceberg is not a sign that the ice shelf is about to disintegrate. He said that ice shelves generally naturally break up as they extend further out into the ocean. “I am not unduly concerned about it – it is not the first mega iceberg ever to have formed,” he said.

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