A year ago, a huge iceberg broke away from Antarctica. What happened to him during this time?

Almost a year ago, the Antarctic Larsen Glacier Cspawned iceberg A-68, one of the largest chunks of ice in history. Satellite footage shows the split, separation and subsequent travel of the iceberg over the past 12 months. Iceberg A-68 is the sixth largest iceberg known. At the time of separation, a block with an area of ​​5800 sq. km (almost a third of the area of ​​Crimea, if anything) weighed almost 1000 billion tons. Having freed itself from the Larsen S ice shelf, the A-68 began to slowly drift northward. Slow is the key word. As the shooting shows, this huge block of ice is in no hurry.

Adrian Luckman and Maratin O'Leary from the MIDAS project,A British research project in Antarctica that is investigating the effects of climate change on the Larsen C ice shelf, the iceberg is said to have not drifted far due to the dense ice cover in the Weddell Sea.

“The iceberg was pushed by ocean currents, tides andwinds, and its northern end has repeatedly run aground near the Bowden Glacial Rise, ”write Luckman and O'Leary. "These groundings ultimately led to further fragmentation of the iceberg in May 2018."

New pieces of iceberg are not big enough toget their own names, but the total area of ​​A-68 losses in May itself will be the size of a small town. Over time, the iceberg will continue to gradually move out to sea; it will take decades. Scientists estimate that the A-68 has lost 12% of its total weight over the past year. But it still remains huge.