First major chunk breaks off world’s biggest iceberg

PARIS: An enormous chunk has broken off the world´s largest iceberg, in a possible first sign the behemoth from Antarctica could be crumbling, scientists told AFP on Friday.

The colossal iceberg -- which is more than twice the size of Greater London and weighs nearly one trillion tonnes -- had largely stayed intact since it started slowly moving north in 2020. It has been drifting toward the remote island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic, raising the prospect it could run aground in shallower water and disrupt feeding for baby penguins and seals.

But a chunk about 19-kms long has cleaved off, said Andrew Meijers from the British Antarctic Survey, who encountered the iceberg in late 2023 and has tracked its fate via satellite ever since.

“This is definitely the first significant clear slice of the iceberg that´s appeared,” the physical oceanographer told AFP. The jagged piece has an area of roughly 80 square kilometres -- huge in its own right, but just a fraction of the approximately 3360 square kilometres that remained.

Meijers said icebergs were full of deep fractures, and although this monumental specimen had shrunk over time and lost a much smaller piece, it had “held together pretty nicely”.