“We first noticed a crack on the front of the ice shelf in the early 2000s and predicted that a large iceberg would break off between 2010 and 2015,” said Helen Amanda Friker, professor at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

According to her, an iceberg spall with an area of ​​1636 square meters. km is not related to climate change and is “part of the normal ice shelf cycle”, where large fault cases are observed every 60-70 years.

Fricker also added that what happened did not affect the sea level, since the ice shelf was already swimming "like a cube of ice in a glass of water."

It is noted that the area of ​​the Amery ice shelf, where the block broke, scientists have been closely watching for almost 20 years.

Earlier it became known that the annual loss of Antarctic ice mass has increased six times over the past 40 years.