Antarctica’s Massive Iceberg Has Become a Major Scientific Experiment

Last month , humanity check with a mixture of fear and terror as an iceberg half the size of Jamaica broke uninfected off the Antarctic Peninsula . But the storey is n’t over for Larsen C , or its recently - shed venter blubber , the iceberg lettuce now known as A68 . As both ‘ berg and shelf retain to transform before our eyes , they ’re proving to be a scientific gold mine for researchers .

Acommentarypublished today in Nature Climate Change offers a run - down of some of the impact we ’ve seen since A68 made its big happy chance on July 12th , severalise from the Larsen C shabu ledge after months of nail - pungent expectation . Many of the research worker ’ findings arethings we ’ve reported on already — the berg is starting to be adrift away to the Frederick North and crack up into modest bergs , for instance . But as the breakup of A68 and the Larsen C ice shelf continues , scientists are becoming increasingly focused on a singular question : Was this event the , hem , point of the iceberg for Larsen C ?

“ The satellite paradigm reveal a lot of continuing action on Larsen - C Ice Shelf , ” glaciologist and survey carbon monoxide - author Anna Hogg say in astatement . “ We can see that the remain cracks continue to raise towards a feature film call Bawden Ice Rise , which offer significant structural musical accompaniment for the remaining ice ledge . If an ice ledge loses contact lens with the ice upgrade , either through sustained cutting or a large crisphead lettuce break up event , it can incite a significant quickening in ice amphetamine , and possibly further destabilization . ”

The possibility of further ice shelf destabilization is one scientists have been debating for years , and there are conflict feeling . Larsen C is currently at its smallest sizing since satellite - record book keeping began , and other ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula have been retreat for decades — in part , scientists believe , due to climate change . But whether what ’s leave behind of Larsen C will go along to go against up in wake of the recent calving event calculate on many factors , including how much morphological support the ‘ berg provided to the eternal rest of the ledge , and whether the shelf becomes untethered at key pinning distributor point , like the Bawden Ice Rise .

What ’s clear-cut is that scientists are athirst for the fresh imagery coming in every week from NASA and European Space Agency - top satellites . While Larsen C ’s recent breakup is consistent with the natural calving cycles of meth shelves , it has also become something of a scientific experimentation . Scientists will feed the data point from this experiment into model , and hopefully , develop a best word-painting of how other south-polar glaciers will come — and how quickly they ’ll disintegrate — in a thaw universe .

“ We will continue to employ multiple types of satellite data , carefully collected by outer space agencies around the world , such as ESA and NASA , ” Hogg tell Gizmodo in an e-mail . “ We will conflate these observation , with trash flow models to try out our ideas about how the remaining ledge has responded to the iceberg calving event , and most importantly , what the physical processes responsible for for aim this change are . ”

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.