SEVEN Table Mountains – that’s the size of a gigantic iceberg that recently broke off an ice sheet in Antarctica. The iceberg measured 1 550km² and separated from the 150m-thick Brunt Ice Shelf last month.
How did it happen?
Antarctica is covered in a very thick layer of ice and snow – nearly 2km deep. When it snows, over time this becomes a large, heavy mountain of ice and snow in the middle of the continent. When this gets too heavy, the ice and snow turn into ice rivers called glaciers, which slowly slide towards the ocean.
These glaciers eventually push over the edge of the land into the sea, where it becomes an ice shelf – an extremely thick layer of ice which floats on the water while still connected to land.
From time to time, the weight of the ice banks causes cracks and they break off into smaller chunks. This process is
