Over the last decade, global warming is increasing rapidly and it affects the polar region of Earth. The Larsen C which is the farthest point of South, gradually breaking up & going to produce a massive iceberg.

In 2009, NASA started a special mission called Operation Ice bridge to monitor the polar regions of Earth. Since then it is capturing the high-resolution images of Arctic & antarctic ice shelves. On Friday, during the flyby above the Antarctic Peninsula, the research team has discovered a massive rift on the ice shelf. This ice shelf is known as Larson C which is one of the biggest ice shelves in Antarctica.

The photo reveals that the Larsen C fracture is about 70 miles long, over 300 feet wide & and about one-third of a mile deep . Although it is still intact but, the crack is getting bigger day by day.

In a press release, NASA announced that "The crack completely cuts through the Ice Shelf but it does not go all the way across it - once it does, it will produce an iceberg roughly the size of the state of Delaware".

There are two types of ice could be found in the polar region, one is fresh or loose ice and the other is compact ice. Basically, ice shelves are made of compact ice which floats on the water and protects glaciers from sliding towards the ocean. In the absence of ice shelves, glaciers will directly slide down to the ocean & increase the sea level.

Larsen B which was the biggest ice shelf of the east side, collapsed in 2002, due to the rapid growth of global warming. Over 3200 square kilometers of ice turned into icebergs in just 35 days. The Same thing is going to happen with Larsen C. Scientists are assuming that if Larsen C ice shelf starts to break off then the destruction will be much bigger than Larsen B.

However, the growth of ice sheet is increasing in elsewhere in the Antarctic. Net gain of ice between 1992 and 2001 was 112 billion tons, according to the recorded data of satellites. Although, it has slowed down to 82 billion tons per year between 2003 to 2008.

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