As reported by the European Space Agency, a giant slab of ice has calved from the frozen edge of Antarctica into the Weddell Sea, becoming the largest iceberg afloat in the world.
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The newly calved berg, designated A-76 by scientists, was spotted in recent satellite images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission. Its surface area spans 4,320 square km (1,668 square miles) and measures 175 km long by 25 km wide.
By comparison, Spain’s popular tourist island of Majorca in the Mediterranean occupies 3,640 square km (1,405 square miles).The U.S. state of Rhode Island is smaller still, with a landmass of just 2,678 square km.
The enormity of A-76, which broke away from Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf, ranks as the largest existing iceberg on the planet, surpassing the now second-place A-23A, about 3,380 square km (1,305 square miles) in size and also floating in the Weddell Sea.
