Antarctica this week shed an iceberg of mind-boggling size from its Larsen C ice shelf.
The block of ice will likely be given the unceremonious name of A68 by the US National Ice Center, whose abbreviations denote both an iceberg's location and order of discovery.
Iceberg A68 now begins a long journey into the Southern Ocean and toward its doom: as liquid in Earth's vast and complex system of water.
Here's how scientists discovered the giant iceberg, how it calved, and how it will eventually die — and be reborn.
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In 2015, glaciologist Daniela Jansen discovered a growing crack in Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf, which was then the fourth-largest ice shelf on the continent. The shelf is hundreds of years old, maybe more.
Sources: The Conversation (via Business Insider); The Cryosphere
Ice shelves like Larsen C, and their icebergs, come from snow that's covered Antarctica over thousands of years and compacted into ice. In many places, the ice is a mile thick down to bedrock.
Source: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
But the ice doesn't sit there. Gravity tirelessly pulls it toward the sea, where it floats on the water to form gigantic ice shelves.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider