East Antarctica’s Conger Ice Shelf ‘Virtually’ Collapses

A giant iceberg measuring about the size of Chicago calved from the Conger Ice Shelf in East Antartica this month, representing “virtually all” of what remained of the ice shelf, according to the U.S. National Ice Center.

The calving event was first identified on March 17 by Jan Lieser from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

The iceberg, named C-38, initially measured 16 nautical miles (nm) by 10 nm, but has since calved into two new icebergs and drifted approximately 40 nautical miles since the initial calving was first identified.

The apparent collapse of the ice shelf comes after Antarctica was hit with a multi-day heatwave that brought temperatures close to zero degrees fahrenheit in some places, more than 70 degrees above normal.

The Conga Ice Shelf was adjacent to the Glenzer Ice Shelf, which calved earlier in March creating iceberg C-37, which is smaller than C-38.

Satellite imagery of the calving event was shared online, showing the ice shelf collapsed around March 15.