Discovering the 'massive' iceberg in Antarctica

A giant iceberg, about eight times the size of Manhattan (USA) and across the city of Hamburg (Germany), broke out in an Antarctic glacier.

Germany's TerraSAR-X earth observation satellites detect a giant iceberg as it separates from the Pine Island glacier. Scientists say this is the result of a giant crack discovered in 2011, this crack created an iceberg of 720km ^{2 in} size.

Giant cracks on the Pine Island glacier.(Photo: Wikimedia Commos)

Mr. Angelika Humbert, an ice researcher at Alfred Wegener Academy in Bremerhaven, Germany, said: "The ice sheets are born from the flow of glaciers and as large as the city of Hamburg."

According to experts, large ice sheets are often separated from glaciers every 6 to 10 years, and similarly remarkable events happened in 2007 and 2011. Icebergs are not considered a Part of the result of global warming. However, glaciers are still the source of about 10% of all ice sheets melting west of Antarctica.

Natureworldnews quoted David Vaughan from the British Antarctic survey team to BBC: 'Pine Island is the fastest-shrinking glacier on the planet, it loses more ice than any other glacier and it contributes to the water level. Sea increases rapidly '.

Pine Island Glacier is a large ice stream in the Amundsen Sea, which accounts for about 10% of the area in the west of Antarctica. This glacier was discovered by the US Geological Survey and the US Navy in 1960-1969 with aerial photographs.