In a news pertaining to climate change & its consequences, a new iceberg which is thrice the size of New Delhi and nearly four times the size of New York was given birth in Antarctica. Claimed by the experts as the new largest iceberg in the world, the A-76 has invoked a lot of chatter among the public and comes as a new warning signal in the climate change debate.

Antarctica, the southernmost continent of planet which is inhabited by icebergs of different sizes, has seen triggering temperature rises in the past few decades. Every few years a giant piece of ice degrades and forms into another iceberg. In another such incident a huge iceberg calved from the Ronne Ice Shelf’s western front and is now floating on top of the Weddell Sea in Antarctica.

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More details of A-76, the largest iceberg in the world

This new iceberg is called A-76 and measures around 4,320 sq km in size. To put the enormity of the size, we must put a perspective to it. The iceberg is 3 times the size of Delhi which stands at 1,484 sq km and almost 4 times the size of New York which stands at around 783.8 sq km.

In its statement, the European Space Agency said-

“The iceberg was spotted by the British Antarctic Survey and confirmed by the US National Ice Center using Copernicus Sentinel-1 imagery.”

The surface area of the iceberg is 4,32 sq km and measures 175 km long and 25 km wide. The previous largest iceberg was A-23A, and it is currently floating on the same Weddell Sea with a size of about 3,380 km.

It should be noted that the Ronne Shelf, where the new iceberg calved from, is near Antarctic Peninsula base and houses series of humongous floating ice sheets that connects the continent’s mass to the surrounding sea.

“Part of the natural cycle”: Expert glaciologist rejects climate change concerns

Reuters talked to a research glaciologist at the University of Colorado, Ted Scambos, who said that calving of large chunks of sheets at Ronne Shelf is part of its natural cycle. Further, he also said that A-76 will in future split into multiple pieces.

Mr. Scambos said that the Ronne shelf, “behaved in a stable, quasi-periodic fashion” over the course of last century. He also disregarded any connect to climate change and said that since the ice was already floating in the sea, its breakage will not raise the levels of the ocean.

Not the first calving in Antarctica

It should be noted that it’s not just A-76 that was formed after an iceberg broke. Earlier this year, a giant iceberg broke off another ice shelf in Antarctica. According to the ESA’s official statement, “A giant iceberg, approximately 1.5 times the size of Greater Paris, broke off from the northern section of Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf on Friday 26th February.” The iceberg that formed as a consequence was known as A-74.

ESA’s Mark Drinkwater was quoted saying-

“Although the calving of the new berg was expected and forecasted some weeks ago, watching such remote events unfold is still captivating. Over the following weeks and months, the iceberg could be entrained in the swift south-westerly flowing coastal current, run aground or cause further damage by bumping into the southern Brunt Ice Shelf. So, we will be carefully monitoring the situation using data provided by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission.”

Similarly, an iceberg twice the size of Luxembourg also broke off the ice shelf in Antarctica. It was then the largest iceberg that was calved from the Larsen C iceshelf. Standing at 5,800 sq km, the iceberg was called the A6. Initially the calved off section did remain intact with the shelf, later strong winds pushed the section away in September 2019.