An iceberg weighing more than 1 trillion tons has broken free from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica, according to a U.K.-based research project that monitors ice melt in the region.
Project MIDAS, which researches the effects of climate change on the Antarctic, said the volume of the iceberg is “twice that of Lake Erie,” and is one of the biggest calving incidents ever recorded.
Researchers said the calving happened between Monday and Wednesday, and was detected and confirmed by NASA.
The event reduces the size of the Larsen C Ice Shelf by 12 percent, and Project MIDAS said it left the “landscape of the Antarctic Peninsula changed forever.”
The lead researcher of Project MIDAS, Professor Adrian Luckman of Swansea University, said it’s not clear whether the iceberg will drift north.
“It may remain in one piece but is more likely to break into fragments,” he said. “Some of the ice may remain in the area for decades, while parts of the iceberg may drift north into warmer waters.”
The group added that the calving event could make the Larsen C Ice Shelf much more unstable and cause it to break apart, just as the Larsen B Ice Shelf did in 2002.
