The rift on the Larsen Ice Shelf in Antarctica has grown another six miles since the start of 2017, reports Project Midas, a UK-based Antarctic research project, investigating the effects of a warming climate on the Larsen C ice shelf in West Antarctica.
The crack now measures 100 miles long and, once complete, will "calve," or break off, of Antarctica. The iceberg remains attached by around 12 miles.
"When it calves, the Larsen C Ice Shelf will lose more than 10% of its area to leave the ice front at its most retreated position ever recorded; this event will fundamentally change the landscape of the Antarctic Peninsula," reads the report.
The iceberg is about the size of Delaware and would be one of the biggest ever recorded, according to researchers at Swansea and Aberystwyth.
"The rift tip has just entered a new area of softer ice, which will slow its progress," said Swansea's Prof Adrian Luckman told BBC News.
"Although you might expect any extension to hasten the point of calving, it actually remains impossible to predict when it will break because the fracture process is so complex. My feeling is that this new development suggests something will happen within weeks to months, but there is an outside chance that further growth will be slow for longer than that. Sometimes rift growth is triggered by ocean swell originating elsewhere, which is also hard to predict."
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