Incredible new images show the birth of a massive iceberg in theAntarctic that's about the size of the Isle of Wight.
The enormous floating berg, called A83, has a total area of 146 sq miles (380 sq km) and is around 490 feet (150 metres) thick.
It broke away from Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf on Monday just weeks after a new crack was spotted in satellite images, experts say.
According to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the movement of iceberg A83 is now being strongly controlled by ocean currents.
'As of this morning it had moved about a mile to the west and rotated slightly,' Dr Oliver Marsh, a glaciologist at British Antarctic Survey (BAS), told MailOnline.
A new crack in the ice runningperpendicular to the Halloween Crack (running horizontally) has birthed the new iceberg, called A83
How do icebergs form?
Icebergs form when pieces of ice break off the end of an ice shelf or a glacier that flows into a body of water.
This is called 'calving' and it’s a natural process that is responsible for ice loss at the edges of glaciers and ice sheets.
As famously demonstrated by the sinking of Titanic in 1912, icebergs often pose a danger to ships.
An iceberg's mass can spread widely under the water's surface, meaning a berg can look smaller than they actually are.
Source:antarcticglaciers.org
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Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf – named after Welsh meteorologist David Brunt – has seen a number of icebergs break away over the last few years.
This latest one,A83, finally came away after a vertical crack connected up with a previously-existing horizonal crack, like scissors cutting out a triangle of paper.
About 30 miles across, the horizonal crevice is calledHalloween Crack because it was discoveredon October 31, 2016.
But the shorter vertical crack – measuring 8.6 miles (14 km) – was only spotted on April 26 this year.
The final break happened in the early hours of Monday May (20), according to BAS experts who studied satellite and GPS data.
'This calving was expected since the appearance of Halloween Crack eight years ago,' saidDr Marsh.
'[It] reduces the total area of the ice shelf to its smallest extent since monitoring began.'
Ice shelves are large floating platforms of ice that connect to a landmass, such as Antarctica, although they're also found in other polar locations such as Greenland.
These shelves act as a protective buffer for the mainland ice, keeping the whole Antarctic Ice Sheet from flowing into the ocean, which would dramatically raise global sea levels.
An outline of the new iceberg is provided in red. Nearby is Halley VI, a relocatable research station that'soperated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS)
Pictured, a still from a flyover video of a huge chasm that appeared in theBrunt Ice Shelf, filmed in January 2023
Antarctica is home to a number of ice shelves marked out in this map, including Brunt, Shackleton and Ross. Brunt is to the east ofthe Antarctic Peninsula (the bit that sticks out from the Antarctic mainland like a little tail)
The melting of ice shelves has been linked with global warming, but according to BAS, the cracks that led to iceberg A83 were created by a natural process.
Dr Marsh said the berg broke off because of the flow of Brunt Ice Shelf towards a fixed point on the sea floor (known as the McDonald Ice Rumples).
'Over time this created a bending stress in the ice to the north of Halloween Crack which increased until it exceeded a critical value,' he told MailOnline.
'This type of calving is just one of the mechanisms through which the ice sheet loses mass to stay in balance with the year-round snowfall.'
The horizonal crack is called Halloween Crack because it was discovered on October 31, 2016. The latest measurement of the crack (prior to the separation event) put it at about 30 miles across
The Halley VI station consists of eight units which each sit on skis so they can be easily manoeuvred away from the edge of the the ice shelf when needed
The horizonal crack is called Halloween Crack because it was discovered on October 31, 2016 and runs about 30 miles across. This image shows the crack in September 2023
The Brunt Ice Shelf is also the location of BAS's Halley VI research station, where important monitoring work is carried out.
Halley VI consists of eight units which each sit on skis so they can be easily manoeuvred away from the edge of the the ice shelf when needed.
In 2016 – the same year Halloween Crack was detected – BAS experts took theprecaution of relocating the base 14 miles inland, further away from the water.
If it had stayed put, it would have sailed away on an iceberg that broke away in January 2023.
Currently,Halley VI is unstaffed, but a new team will return to the station in November.
Antarctica's ice shelves could be melting up to 40% faster than we thought, study warns
Antarctica's ice shelves could be melting up to 40 per cent faster than we thought due to coastal ocean currents, a new study warns.
Scientists in California have created a new climate model that accounts for the impact of a coastal current calledAntarctic Coastal Current (ACC).
The researchers say this narrow current causes warm water to melt Antarctica's ice shelves –floating platforms of ice around theAntarctic coastline.
Their model suggestsice shelf melt rates are 20 to 40 per cent higher than previous predictions from other climate models.
Ice shelves help guard against the uncontrolled release of inland ice into the ocean, so if they're melting, this could eventually contribute to more rapid sea level rise.
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