Almost a year ago, the Antarctic Larsen C Glacier spawned Iceberg A-68, one of the largest chunks of ice in history. Satellite footage shows the split, separation and subsequent travel of the iceberg over the past 12 months. Iceberg A-68 is the sixth largest iceberg known. At the time of separation, a block with an area of 5800 sq. km (almost a third of the area of Crimea, if anything) weighed almost 1000 billion tons. Freed from the Larsen S ice shelf, A-68 began to slowly drift northward. Slow is the key word. As the shooting shows, this huge block of ice is in no hurry.
Adrian Luckman and Maratine O'Leary of the MIDAS project, a UK research project in Antarctica that investigates the impacts of climate change on the Larsen C ice shelf, say the iceberg did not float far because of the dense ice cover in the Weddell Sea.
“The iceberg was pushed by ocean currents, tides and winds, and its northern end was repeatedly stranded near the Bowden Glacial Rise,” write Luckman and O'Leary. "These groundings ultimately led to further fragmentation of the iceberg in May 2018."
The new pieces of iceberg are not big enough to get their own names, but the total area of the A-68's losses in May will itself be the size of a small town. Over time, the iceberg will continue to gradually move out to sea; it will take decades. Scientists estimate that the A-68 has lost 12% of its total weight over the past year. But it still remains huge.
Ilya Khel