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As I was browsing the CNN website for the latest news, I came across an article that caught my eye. It was about an iceberg the size of Delaware that will break off from Antarctica. How could this be? All I knew about Antarctica was that it’s located at the bottom of the earth, made of ice and cold. I had to read more about this iceberg and what caused it.

First I decided to Google Larsen C. It turns out that it is a giant sheet of ice in the northwest part of Antarctica near the Weddell Sea. The name Larsen came from Captain Carl Anton Larsen, master of the whaling vessel Jason. He sailed along the ice shelf back in December 1893. The ice shelf was so big that it was divided on a map into three parts: Larsen A which is the smallest, Larsen B, and Larsen C, the largest of the three. Now I had a good idea of what Larsen C is. 

According to the article, researchers noted that Larsen C started to crack in August in 2016. By December the crack grew up to 13.7 miles. It may break off completely this year to be the largest iceberg ever recorded. Because of the size of Larsen C, the break will change the landscape of the CONTINENT and it will raise the sea level 10 centimeters. Other ice breaks were caused by global climate changes, but the Larsen C break had been caused by geographic patterns researchers say. There are cool pictures of the Larsen C ice shelf and what the crack looks like in the article as well. Chilling, but fascinating.

For more on this article, go to CNN.com and search for “Larsen C.” You can also Google Larsen C and find more articles about this amazing event.  

Edition: 
Phoenix
Tucson
Issue: 
February 2017