One trillion tonne iceberg breaks off Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctic

A one trillion tonne iceberg has broken off from an Antarctic ice shelf, changing the shape of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The much-anticipated calving from the Larsen C Ice Shelf reduces its area by more than 12 per cent, though the 5800 square kilometre iceberg won't have an impact on sea levels as it was already floating before breaking away completely. 

• “Twice the volume of Lake Erie,” according to the Associated Press and Project Midas, which has been closely tracking the iceberg’s progress,
• “Twice the size of Luxembourg” (poor Luxembourg!), according to The Guardian,
• “The size of Delaware,” according to The New York Times,
• “A quarter the size of Wales,” according to the BBC,
• “The size of 10 cities like Madrid or four like Mexico City,” according to El Pais,
• “Sixty times larger than Paris,” according to Le Figaro,
• And “twice the size of the Australian Capital Territory, four times the size of London,” according to the AFP.

The iceberg also contains “almost four times as much ice as the fast melting island of Greenland loses in a year,” according to the Washington Post. 

 

Above: Size of the iceberg compared to good ol' Sydney in Straya.

Pretty big iceberg mate, pretty big.