Scientists had been monitoring the crack in the Larsen C ice shelf for several years An iceberg the size of Delaware recently broke away from western Antarctica and is now floating in the ocean. While, without doubt, a major event, said Associate Professor of Earth and Oceanographic Science Peter Lea, it was not unexpected. `The crack in the Larsen C ice shelf had been growing for ten years, so it was a question of when, not if, the break-off, or `calving` as it`s known, would happen.` Ice shelves such as this one, explained Lea, are formed by the continued accumulation of snow, which flows off the mainland and freezes, forming a huge area of ice. `This is essentially how Antarctica gets rid...
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