LONDON: Scientists have discovered a massive crack in the Antarctic ice sheet is growing wider and possibly could break off within a few months. NASA scientists said that the iceberg could be as large as the size of New York City. The crack is part of western Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier and is at least 30 kilometers long and some 50 kilometers deep. According to NASA project scientist Michael Studinger of the space agency's IceBridge project, in a statement from the agency, the crack is growing some two meters daily. When it breaks off from the ice sheet, the iceberg will be some 880 square kilomters, but Studinger said the crack is not a result of global warming. “We expect that later this year or early next year year there will be a pretty large iceberg forming as part of a natural cycle,” he added. “These are cyclical events that occur every few years. The last big carving event occurred in 2001, so in general people have been expecting something to happen like that very soon. BM
