Giant Iceberg Nearly The Size Of Delaware Breaks Off Antartica

The White Whale:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/larsen-iceberg_us_59660d73e4b03f144e2f53b2

Here's the report from the MIDAS Project.

They say it will be named "A68" -- I saw on Twitter that some were suggesting it be named the #ExxonKnew -- and weighs over a trillion tonnes. That's about how much ice the planet has been losing per year for a few years now.

In the picture to the right, I'm guessing that's sea ice to the outer edge of the breakoff, which this iceberg will begin pushing through.

The Larsen C ice shelf is, suddenly, 12% smaller, and, "potentially less stable," says MIDAS. "This is the furthest back that the ice front has been in recorded history," says a MIDAS scientist. Another said, interestingly:

“We have been anticipating this event for months, and have been surprised how long it took for the rift to break through the final few kilometres of ice."

Mind, it did break off in the depth of the dark, Antarctic winter, but I'm sure he took that into account.