World’s largest iceberg breaks off from Antarctica

An iceberg that recently broke off of Antarctica is officially the world’s largest, the European Space Agency (ESA) reported on Wednesday.

The ESA shared a picture of the 1,667-square-mile iceberg, dubbed A-76, calving from the Ronne Ice Shelf. It now floats in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea.

According to the release, the iceberg was spotted by British Antarctic Survey and was later confirmed by the U.S. National Ice Center, with the picture being captured by Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission. 

USA Today noted that A-76 is more than three times the size of Los Angeles.

Iceberg calving, the paper reported, is a natural process that does not automatically raise sea levels because the berg was already part of a floating sea shelf. 

The process may be happening at an accelerated rate, however, because of human-made climate change.

The previous world-record iceberg, which measured 1,498 square miles, also broke off in the Weddell Sea.