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(CNN) - A huge iceberg larger than Los Angeles separated from the Amery ice shelf in Antarctica, the largest in more than half a century.
The iceberg, named D-28 by scientists, broke off the platform in eastern Antarctica on September 26. It measures 1,636 square kilometers of area and is 210 meters thick.
Now, the iceberg will be tracked because it represents a potential danger to ships.
Scientists from the Australian Antarctic Program, the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego have observed developments in the ice shelf for almost 20 years, after detecting for the first time a fault that developed early the 2000s
Helen Amanda Fricker, a Scripps glaciologist, said researchers had predicted a break-up event between 2010 and 2015, about 50 years after the last one that happened at the Amery in 1963-1964.
In a statement issued by the Arctic Division of Australia, he said: “I am excited to see this event after all these years. We knew it would happen eventually, but just to stay alert, it's not exactly where we expected it to go. ”
She and her colleagues had been watching a nearby place known as a "loose tooth" since 2002 due to its shape and its precarious attachment to the ice shelf.
Scientists believe that the breaking process is a natural phenomenon and is not related to climate change.
Fricker explained: "We do not believe that this event is related to climate change, it is part of the normal cycle of the ice shelf, where we see major breaking events every 60-70 years."
The breakdown last week, observed in satellite images, will not have an impact on sea level, researchers say.
The Scripps Oceanography Institute wrote on its Twitter page: “[The ice platforms] do not directly affect the sea level because the ice platforms are already floating, just like an ice cube in a glass of water. Fixed ice is the one that worries about the rise in sea level. ”
In the comments published by Scripps, Fricker added that "while there is much to worry about in Antarctica, there is still no cause for alarm for this particular ice shelf."
Iceberg