Photo: ESA
We’re used to jumping out the edge of our seats every time we hear the words iceberg or Antarctica. That’s because most of the time these two words are linked to news about how global warming is carving massive chunks of ice from the region, and sends them floating away on the world’s oceans.
Last week, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced the sighting of what may very well be the largest iceberg in the world. It just broke off from the western side of the Ronne Ice Shelf, in the Weddell Sea, and it is now slowly moving away from the structure it was once part of.
The iceberg was detected by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, which consists of two satellites floating above the polar region with the mission to scan the region for changes. The iceberg is dubbed A-76, after the quadrant in which it was originally sighted.
The massive chunk of ice is a rectangle 170 km long and 25 km wide (106 by 15 miles) with a total area of 4,320 square km (2,684 square miles). That’s larger than the Spanish island of Majorca, says ESA, and significantly larger than the previous record-holder, which was 3,880 square km (2,411 square miles), thus making it the largest iceberg that we know of.
According to CNN, citing unnamed scientists, this huge chunk of ice may not be the result of global warming. They attribute the birth of the iceberg to a natural phenomenon called calving that sees such separations take place on a regular basis.
These islands of ice do not pose a threat to our way of life, as according to the same source, once this massive iceberg melts away, it will not lead to a rise in sea levels “because it was part of a floating ice shelf” - kind of like a melting ice cube in a glass of water doesn't increase the level of the liquid, they say.
The iceberg was detected by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, which consists of two satellites floating above the polar region with the mission to scan the region for changes. The iceberg is dubbed A-76, after the quadrant in which it was originally sighted.
The massive chunk of ice is a rectangle 170 km long and 25 km wide (106 by 15 miles) with a total area of 4,320 square km (2,684 square miles). That’s larger than the Spanish island of Majorca, says ESA, and significantly larger than the previous record-holder, which was 3,880 square km (2,411 square miles), thus making it the largest iceberg that we know of.
According to CNN, citing unnamed scientists, this huge chunk of ice may not be the result of global warming. They attribute the birth of the iceberg to a natural phenomenon called calving that sees such separations take place on a regular basis.
These islands of ice do not pose a threat to our way of life, as according to the same source, once this massive iceberg melts away, it will not lead to a rise in sea levels “because it was part of a floating ice shelf” - kind of like a melting ice cube in a glass of water doesn't increase the level of the liquid, they say.
Google News