A massive iceberg weighing more than one trillion tons and nearly ten times the size of Mumbai has broken away from Antarctica and is now floating independently.
Script: Thufail pt; Editing: Suraj Wadhwa
Scientists, who have been anticipating it for months, have described it as “a spectacular and enormous geographical event which has changed the landscape."
Experts said a 5,800-square-kilometer section of Larsen C ice shelf was confirmed to have broken away between Monday and Wednesday by NASA's Aqua MODIS satellite, reported CNN. Project MIDAS, a research group at Swansea and Aberystwyth Universities in Wales that has been monitoring the situation closely by satellite, has also confirmed the event.
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It is one of the largest icebergs in the recorded history. It has a volume twice that of Lake Erie in North America and is more than three times the size of the greater London area.
The iceberg is likely to be named A68.
The New York Times has called it as a “reminder” on global warming and an indication of the rapid change now occurring on the world’s iciest continent.
"This is yet another wake up call… Antarctica is on the rise and we should be concerned about what that means for future sea level," CNN quoted an expert.
