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Sohn: Icebergs and other Titanic climate concerns

This February 2017 frame from video provided by the British Antarctic Survey shows the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica. A vast iceberg with twice the volume of Lake Erie broke off from the Larsen C ice shelf Wednesday. (British Antarctic Survey via AP)
This February 2017 frame from video provided by the British Antarctic Survey shows the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica. A vast iceberg with twice the volume of Lake Erie broke off from the Larsen C ice shelf Wednesday. (British Antarctic Survey via AP) This February 2017 frame from video provided by the British Antarctic Survey shows the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica. A vast iceberg with twice the volume of Lake Erie broke off from the Larsen C ice shelf Wednesday. (British Antarctic Survey via AP)

By Pam Sohn 4 min read

photo Massive iceberg breaks away

A massive iceberg the size of Delaware and weighing more than one trillion tons has broken away from Antarctica and is floating in the sea, according to a UK-based research team.

So what? Delaware is a postage stamp of a state, right?

Let’s put it another way, then.

A 2,300-square-mile iceberg about the size of the southeastern corner of Tennessee has broken away to float free in the ocean. It would be as if Hamilton, Marion, Sequatchie, Grundy, Bradley and Polk counties all broke free of Tennessee and their adjoining neighbor states to become an island.

In the Antarctic, this new iceberg is half the size of the largest iceberg ever recorded. The largest was about the size of Connecticut or the island of Jamaica, and it calved off Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf in March 2000 – just about the time our earth really began to heat up.