Largest Ice Berg Ever is About to Calve From Larcen C Ice Shelf-Antarctica

 The largest ice berg ever created is about to calve off from the Larcen C ice shelf in Antartica.  The resulting ice berg will be about the size of the state of Delaware.  An enormous crack in the ice shelf was first noticed in 2010 and has been accelerating ever since. The location of the Larcen C ices shelf and others are shown below.

Below you can see progression of the huge crack in the ice shelf beginning in 2010 to 2017.

Even though it is currently winter in the southern hemisphere, scientists believe the crack is still progressing and on May 31, 2017 the crack is only 13 km from the open ocean. It is expected to reach open ocean in weeks. When it arrives at the ocean, it will break off entirely, creating a massive floating ice-berg the size of Delaware.   The diagram below explains how an ice shelf extends over the open ocean and is undercut by warmer ocean water currents.  This is the reason why the shelf crack continues to progress even though winter has arrived in Antarctica. Complete melting of this one massive ice berg alone will likely raise ocean levels world wide by 10 cm.  

The above arial image of the crack shows how deep it is and how very noticeable it is from the air. This historic event marks a milestone in global climate change and is an indicator that the planet is on course to a major warming event.

Maddalena Environmental Inc.
​Al Maddalena
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