A crack first appeared in the 400 foot-thick sheet of ice in the Weddell Sea, known as the Brunt Ice Shelf, in October 2016. Dubbed the "Halloween crack", it has continued to grow eastward since then, from an area called the McDonald Ice Rumples. It will be the largest iceberg to break off from the Brunt Ice Shelf since observations began in 1915. "If they merge upstream (south) of the McDonald Ice Rumples, then it’s possible that the ice shelf will be destabilised." The edge of the Brunt Ice Shelf has evolved slowly since Ernest Shackleton surveyed the coast in 1915, but it has been speeding up in the past several years, according to NASA.

Source: Daily Mirror February 25, 2019 14:35 UTC