A ginormous iceberg, almost the size of Delware (mid-atlantic US state), is about to detach itself from one of the largest ice shelves in the Antarctic and float off the Weddell Sea, which is on the southern tip of South America.
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This is an event that scientists foresaw and have been expecting this break from the Larsen C ice shelf. The shelf extends to over 100 miles long. According to the latest update from NASA and the University of California scientists only three miles of ice is still connected to the larger ice shelf.
Parts of the iceberg that have already detached from the shelf have started moving seaward and so straining the remaining ice to ¡°near breaking point¡±.
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This anticipated event, on its own, will not affect global sea levels because the detached chunk of ice is already floating in the ocean. However, what scientists fear that this event could assist in destabilising the larger Larsen C ice shelf faster.
According to an analysis by the European Space Agency and a scientist at the University of Edinburgh, Noel Gourmelen, the iceberg itself will be enormous, in fact, one of the most enormous ones ever seen from Antarctica. It will contain about one trillion tons of ice.