London- One of world’s largest ever recorded , a trillion ton iceberg has broken off from Larsen C ice sheet in the West Antarctic.
It weighs about mind boggling trillion tons and has a sizable area of 5800 sq km. Almost in Four times the size of london , twice the size of Luxembourg. It is about 190 meters thick or 57 stories.
The process of calving is common in Antarctica. Happens almost every day. Between 10th and 12th July breaking off process occurred. NASA detected the process.
Adrian Luckman , leader of the UK’s Midas project and professor of glaciology at Swansea University said “The iceberg is one of the largest recorded and its future progress is difficult to predict,”.
He also added that “It may remain in one piece but is more likely to break into fragments. Some of the ice may remain in the area for decades, while parts of the iceberg may drift north into warmer waters. Some of the ice may remain in the area for decades, while parts of the iceberg may drift north into warmer waters”.
In 2000, B-15 was the largest iceberg ever to break off from Antarctic ice shelf. After breaking off from ice shelf, it broke into smaller icebergs. Named as B-15A , was the largest one amongst them.
Experts believes that iceberg will not effect on sea level immediately, as it was already floating but it could add risks for shipping. The Area is outside of major trade route but it is also one of the main destination for cruise ships. And if Larsen C entirely collapses and melts then we can expect sea level rise up to 4 inches.
Ship MTV explorer sank due to an unfortunate incident after it hit an iceberg of the Antarctica peninsula. And as a result more than 150 passengers, crew members were evacuated.
Iceberg is likely to be named as A68, It was part of Larsen C ice shelf. After the process of calving Larsen C ice shelf has reduced by 12% in size. Northern ice shelves Larsen A and Larsen B collapsed respectively in 1995 and 2002.
West Antarctica is getting warmer very rapidly everyday, creating worrying situation for its penguin population.
Image courtesy : Pixabay
