A Delaware-sized iceberg, one of the largest ever seen, was set adrift after snapping from a West Antarctic ice shelf that will be closely watched for signs of collapse, scientists said Wednesday. A crack in the Larsen C ice shelf, a drifting extension of the land-based ice sheet, finally broke through after inching its way across the frozen formation for years.
It created an iceberg of about 5,800 square kilometers, with a volume twice that of Lake Erie, one of the North American Great Lakes.
The calving of ice shelves occurs naturally, though global warming is thought to have accelerated the process in some regions. Warmer ocean water erodes the underbelly of the ice shelves, while rising air temperatures weaken them from above.
Icebergs calving from Antarctica are a regular occurrence, and there are thousands of them.
O'Leary and Drinkwater said this particular iceberg calving was unrelated to global warming.
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