Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: Antarctica's Melting Beauty

One of the largest icebergs ever split off in Antarctica on July 12. Scientists argue about the impact of climate change: some have not yet found any link to human-induced global warming; others argue it is crystal clear that it was yet another wake-up call. Explore Antarctica's dissolving icy landscapes in Sputnik’s photo gallery.

The massive 5,800-square-kilometer segment of the Larsen C Ice Shelf weighing 1 trillion tons has broken off the Antarctic Peninsula and is now adrift in the Weddell Sea. The iceberg's area is twice the size of Luxembourg and is more than three times the size of the greater London area.

The huge crack that spawned the new iceberg grew over a period of years. Some specialists say it was a natural event they had been anticipating for months, and they were surprised "how long it took for the rift to break through the final few kilometers of ice."

Other scientists claim the iceberg breakup signals that the ice shelf has gotten too thin and vulnerable. So far, experts can't predict how the situation will develop further. They suggest that the iceberg may split into several parts, or remain intact for decades, drifting to the north.

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© REUTERS / ESA

An enormous section of an iceberg that broke off the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica seen in this satellite image released by the European Space Agency on July 12.

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© AFP 2023 / Mark Ralston

An Adelie penguin arrives at the New Harbor research station near McMurdo Station in Antarctica on November 11, 2016.

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CC BY 2.0 / Christopher Michel / Antarctica Melting

Melting ice in Antarctica.

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© AP Photo / Natacha Pisarenko

Chilean Navy officers push away ice by moving their boat in circles as they approach the Aquiles Navy ship where they will pick up international scientists and take them to Chile's Bernardo O'Higgins scientific research station to study global warming and other pressing global concerns by collecting samples from the Antarctic Peninsula on January 22, 2015.

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© AFP 2023 / Torsten Blackwood

An enormous iceberg (right) breaking off the Knox Coast in the Australian Antarctic Territory on January 11, 2008.

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© AFP 2023 / Torsten Blackwood

A turquoise lake (center) forms from melting snow near Cape Folger on the Budd Coast in the Australian Antarctic Territory on January 11, 2008.

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© REUTERS / NASA

A rift across the Larsen C Ice Shelf that had grown longer and deeper is seen during an airborne survey of changes in polar ice over the Antarctic Peninsula from NASA’s DC-8 research aircraft on November 10, 2016.

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© AFP 2023 / Eitan Abramovich

A Weddell seal rests on an ice floe in the icy waters of Antarctica on March 5, 2016.

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© Photo : NASA/John Sonntag

Snapshot of a rift in the Larsen C Ice Shelf on November 10, 2016.

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CC BY 2.0 / Christopher Michel / Iceberg Graveyard

Thousands of intricately carved spires, arches and blocks drift silently through a sunset in Antarctica’s narrow Lemaire Channel.

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CC BY 2.0 / NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Mackenzie Bay, Antarctica

Mackenzie Bay off the northeastern edge of Antarctica’s Amery Ice Shelf.

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© AP Photo / Natacha Pisarenko

Swiss geologist Richard Spikings, who is in Antarctica studying the tectonic evolution of the peninsula and surrounding islands, takes pictures from Aquiles, the Chilean Navy ship near the Bernardo O'Higgins station in Antarctica on January 22, 2015.

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© Sputnik / Aleksey Nikolskyi

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An iceberg in the Lazarev Sea near Antarctica.

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© AFP 2023 / Eitan Abramovich

Ice floats on the surface of the sea in the western Antarctic Peninsula on March 05, 2016.

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© REUTERS / NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

An aerial view of the rift in the Larsen C Ice Shelf seen in an image from the Digital Mapping System over the Antarctic Peninsula on November 10, 2016.

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© Sputnik / I. Kouznetsova

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Vast landscapes of Antarctica.