A giant iceberg has broken away from Antartica after the enormous crack that scientists have been closely watching finally gave way.
The giant block is estimated to cover an area of roughly 6000 sq km, which is roughly three times the size of Stewart Island!
The crack was near to an important scientific research station, which was based at the Brunt Ice Shelf. The research station has had to move to a new location.
Now, the block of ice has broken away from the icy continent, forming one of the biggest icebergs that has ever been recorded, weighing a whopping TRILLION tonnes!
It is believed the iceberg finally broke away at some point between Monday and Wednesday.
It has not caught people by surprise though. Scientists have been monitoring the crack for more than 10 years and expected that this would happen at some point.
It will be important to see what happens to it now as it could get in the way of ships’ routes, depending where it travels to.
Chris Borstad, from the University Centre in Svalbard, says: “At this stage, we really don’t know whether there is some larger-scale process that might be weakening this zone, like ocean melting at the base of the shelf, or whether the current rift was just a random event that was bound to happen at some point.”
16 Responses
Wow tyhat is freaky I hope that the water from that iceberg freezes somewhere else.
Amazing I wish I could see where it cracked
lets hope there isn’t anyone hurt wherever it goes
NOW do you have enough in your drink?
that’s scary it’s just like the movie the day after tomorrow when the guy is drilling a hole in the ground then suddenly a crack.
Whoa! That is so cool, and REALLY a TRILLION tonnes?!? Thats super impressive!
that ice berg is really heavy!!!
O GOLLY GOSH THAT IS IMPRESSIVE
wow I never knew ice bergs could be so big!!! thats pretty cool
this is incredible news thanks 🙂
I hope it doesn’t do something bad to the enviroment …
Thats alot of ice and to think that that much ice could be somewhere in our ocean is kind of scary
3 times of Stewart island
thats crazy!
i never knew how a big ice can break
that’s crazy