The iceberg, named A-38, is 92 x 29.9 miles and covers an area roughly 2750.8 square miles. It calved off the second largest ice shelf in Antarctica, located in the southern Weddell Sea. Mary Keller, a scientist at the National Ice Center in Suitland, Md., sighted the iceberg using satellite data. Ice shelves are massive, floating sheets of snow and frozen water that encircle the Antarctic mainland. Scientists at University College London believe that the calving of icebergs is an important mechanism in the disintegration of ice shelves, and a possible indicator of global warming.
Scientists there report that the mechanics of ice shelf fracturing remain poorly understood.
A research group at the college is planning to study ice core samples from the Ronne Ice Shelf to learn more about fracture and deformation properties. The last known iceberg of this magnitude to calve off a Southern Hemisphere Ice Shelf was B-9 in the Ross Sea in October 1987. Iceberg names are derived from the Antarctic quadrant in which they were originally sighted. When an iceberg is first sighted, the National Ice Center documents its point of origin. The letter of the quadrant, along with a sequential number is assigned to the iceberg.