LONDON (Reuters) - A massive iceberg of about 1 trillion tonnes has been cut off from the ice shelf in the frozen West Antarctic, British scientists said.
It is believed that this massive ice mass, separated from the Larsen C. glacier, had been cracking on the edge of the shelf for years and over time.
The Modis instrument - an infrared probe on the NASA-based Aqua Aeronautics Satellite Observatory - detected the separation of the mountain.
It is estimated to be about 175 km long and 50 km wide, with a total area of
nearly 6,000 square kilometers.
According to researchers at the University of Swansea in Wales, Britain, the separation of the glacier reduced the size of the Larsen Si cliff about 12%, and changed the shape of the Antarctic Peninsula forever.
Although the iceberg weighs a trillion tons, it basically floats on the water, so it will have no immediate effect on the sea level, according to researchers at the British University.
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Scientists say the mountain will not move long distances in the near term, but they stress the need to monitor it because marine currents and wind may push it north, making it a threat to navigation.
The sea level is not expected to increase because of the break-up of this glacier, but the loss of an ice shelf leads to Antarctic glaciers flowing directly into the sea and acting more rapidly, possibly resulting in a slightly increased sea level.
Researchers at the Alfred Vigner Institute for Polar Research and Sea Research in Bremerhaven, Germany, said on Wednesday that the glacier would probably need two or three years to melt.
The issue of the separation of this shelf brings the issue of global warming back to the fore. President Donald Trump, according to his previous tweets on Twitter, does not attribute global warming to any importance, but says it is a concept invented by the Chinese for their economic interests.
This tirade, considered one of President Trump's strangest tweets, was not confined to Twitter, but turned into a presidential decision after his arrival at the White House when he announced his country's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Convention and asked for renegotiation.
This withdrawal was met with a European condemnation and Germany, France and Italy announced in a joint statement that this agreement is not negotiable.
The Paris Climate Accord includes a fundamental goal of halving the planet's temperature by two degrees Celsius to its pre-industrial reality.