Welcome, iceberg A68. The trillion-ton chunk of ice broke off from an Antarctic ice shelf at some point over the last few days and is now officially its own entity. If "trillion-ton" is a little hard to grasp (more on that below), just know that the long-expected breakaway means that maps of Antarctica will have to be redrawn, notes Vox. The ice shelf from which it came, known as Larsen C, is now 12% smaller and dropped in the rankings of ice shelves from No. 4 to No. 5, per a map from the Antarctic Report. Coverage:
- What happened: For the basics, see this New York Times graphic, complete with maps and explainers. Scientists had been watching the rift grow for years, and they spotted a dramatic 90-degree turn in May.
- No. 3: A video from Tech Insider says A68 (the name isn't official yet) could rank as the third-largest iceberg in history. It's 620 feet thick and covers 2,200 square miles. The video also explores why the crack began accelerating in 2014, once it broke through a protective "suture zone" of the ice shelf.
- Climate change? There's no scientific consensus on whether climate change is to blame because iceberg "calving" is a natural process in the Antarctic. But the debate is on: "For me, there is no doubt that this event is not part of a natural cycle," a NASA and UC-Irvine scientist tells the Washington Post. "We're not aware of any link to human-induced climate change," says a Swansea University glaciologist.