Trillion ton iceberg the size of Delaware is revealed in striking new detail as it drifts from the Larsen C ice shelf
In early July, a huge crack in Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf caused the third largest ever iceberg to break free
The huge chunk of ice, dubbed iceberg A-68 by scientists, measures 5,800 square kilometres
New pictures captured via high definition satellite imagery show iceberg A-68 in stunning detail
Last week researchers released footage of the moment the Antarctic Peninsula lost 10 per cent of its area
By HARRY PETTIT
DAILYMAIL.COM
8 August 2017
In early July, a huge crack in Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf caused a trillion ton iceberg – the third biggest ever recorded – to break off from the icy southern continent.
The huge chunk of ice, dubbed iceberg A-68, measures 5,800 square kilometres (2,240 square miles), making it around the size of Delaware, or four times the area covered by Greater London.
New pictures captured via satellite imagery show iceberg A-68 in stunning detail as it drifts from Antarctica, where it could remain in the open sea for years.
Despite the iceberg breaking off some time between July 10-12, scientists have struggled to take images of A-68 because Antarctica is currently going through its winter season.
Since the split, researchers have relied on polar satellites like Sentinel-1, which uses radar to peer through thick cloud cover.
But a few clear days in late July gave Spanish satellite firm Deimos Imaging a visible-light view using Deimos-1 and Deimos-2 – a pair of satellites that work as a tag-team.
‘These images are striking – easily the best I have seen since calving,’ Adrian Luckman, a glaciologist at Swansea University and a member of the Antarctic research program Project Midas, told Business Insider.
The team’s Deimos-1 satellite captures wider-angle, medium-resolution images while Deimos-2 takes zoomed-in, very-high-resolution pictures.
When combined the images can capture both vast, wide angle views of the scale of the Larsen C crack, as well as detailed up-close views of individual details.
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