For months we have been watching a vast crack in Antarctica’s Larsen C ice-shelf in the Weddell Sea.  Today, a huge block of ice calved from the ice-sheet, forming one of the largest icebergs in recorded history. The new Larsen C iceberg with a surface of 2,200 square miles, is almost the size of Delaware and contains roughly a trillion tons of water, or more water than Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes.

Larsen C is the fourth-largest ice-shelf in Antarctica. The iceberg reduces the size of the ice-shelf by 12 percent. There is concern that the calving of the large iceberg will destabilize the ice-sheet. If the ice-sheet collapses, it could allow glaciers, which had been blocked behind the shelf, to flow more rapidly to the sea, contributing to rising sea-levels. Thanks to Phil Leon for contributing to this post.

Huge Antarctic iceberg finally breaks free – Larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctica