In a statement Friday, the British Antarctic Survey said that the calving is a natural event.īAS glaciologist Alex Brisbourne said, "We know that the ocean around Antarctica is warming as a result of global heating but the Weddell Sea, where iceberg A-76 sits, is not currently experiencing this warming. While there are worrying issues with ice and climate change, the calving of A-76 from the ice shelf isn't setting off scientific alarm bells. An iceberg is given a sequential letter if it breaks off from a larger named mass. A represents the Weddell and Bellingshausen Seas, and 76 indicates that it is the 76th iceberg tracked by USNIC in that quadrant. "Icebergs are traditionally named from the Antarctic quadrant in which they were originally sighted, then a sequential number, then, if the iceberg breaks, a sequential letter," said ESA. The icebergs in this region of the world are traditionally named according to the Antarctic quadrant where they originated. The A-23A iceberg, which had been the biggest, measures 1,500 square miles (3,880 square kilometers). ESA shared the sequence as a GIF on Thursday, and compared the berg to the size of the Spanish island of Majorca. A giant iceberg twice the size of Luxembourg has broken off an ice shelf on the Antarctic peninsula and is now adrift in the Weddell Sea. Called A-76 and roughly the shape of Manhattan but more than 70 times bigger, it was picked up on satellite images and is currently the largest berg in the world, the ESA said. The European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite mission got a view from space of the new iceberg breaking away from the Ronne Ice Shelf on May 13. A huge iceberg, the world’s largest, has broken off from an ice shelf in Antarctica and is floating through the Weddell Sea, the European Space Agency said. They are small fragments of what once left the continent. Most icebergs that make it far enough north from Antarctica to where they are danger to shipping are sometimes many years old and at the end of their lives. But, in truth, the first iceberg you see is likely to be small. You could fit all of Rhode Island onto it with room to spare. You never forget the first time you see an iceberg. The new heavyweight champion is A-76, a hunk of ice that measures 1,670 square miles (4,320 square kilometers). Up until mid-May, iceberg A-23A in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica was the largest berg in the world.