At a chilling 210km long, is this the world’s biggest iceberg?

Threat to cruise ships for the breakaway piece the size of Galway

ONE of the biggest icebergs ever recorded has split from Antarctica after a crack 210 kilometres long opened up.

It weighs in at a trillion tonnes and measures 5,700 square kilometres, roughly the size of Galway, after separating from the Larsen C Ice Shelf.

The massive rift heralded the final breakaway of the iceberg which is likely to be named A68.

It is expected to split into smaller fragments, some of which could drift north to pose a danger to cruise ships in the south Atlantic heading for South America.

Scientists said the final break-up happened between Monday and yesterday. They have been monitoring the growth of the crack in the ice shelf for months using European Space Agency satellites.

Academics at the University of Swansea and British Antarctic Survey have not yet linked the split to climate change as big icebergs break off naturally.

Professor Adrian Luckman is the lead investigator of Project MIDAS, a partnership which has monitored the ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula for years. ‘The iceberg is one of the largest recorded and its future progress is difficult to predict,’ he said.

‘It may remain in one piece but is more likely to break into fragments. Some of the ice may remain in the area for decades while parts of the iceberg may drift north into warmer waters.’ In 2009, over 150 people were evacuated when the MTV Explorer sank after hitting an iceberg off Antarctica. As A68 was floating before it broke off, there is no immediate impact on sea levels.

But its loss has cut the area of Larsen C by more than 12%. The Larsen A and B ice shelves further north collapsed in 1995 and 2002 respectively. David Vaughan, glaciologist and director of science at the British Antarctic Survey, said: ‘If Larsen C starts to retreat significantly and eventually collapses, we will see another contribution to sea level rise.’