Why in news?
- D28 iceberg recently broke off from the Amery ice shelf of Antarctica.
About the iceberg:
- The calved block covers 1,636 sq. km in area and is called D28.
- Approximately 30 km wide and 60 km long, and with a thickness exceeding 200 m, the iceberg is estimated to contain over 300 billion tones’ of ice.
- In the 1960s Amery had calved a bigger iceberg which was a whopping 9,000 sq. km in area.
- Amery is the third largest ice shelf in Antarctica, and is a key drainage channel for the east of the continent.
- Scientists have found that the event is not related to climate change as Iceberg production is part of the normal cycle of ice shelves, which are an extension of the ice cap.
