Newsinc24 Team 
A giant iceberg, more than 20 times the size of New York city just split off from Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf. This dramatic breakup comes after a major crack formed on the shelf in November 2020 and continued to grow until the 'berg finally broke off Friday morning.The so-called "North Rift" crack is the third major chasm to actively tear across the Brunt Ice Shelf in the last decade, and so scientists with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) were absolutely expecting the split. During January, this rift pushed northeast at up to 1 km per day, cutting through the 150-metre-thick floating ice shelf.The iceberg was formed when the crack widened several hundred metres in a few hours on Friday, releasing it from the rest of floating ice shelf.
Almost 10 years after scientists discovered the first cracks, a huge iceberg broke off from the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica pic.twitter.com/NuzP7wvHxX
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 28, 2021
"Our teams at BAS have been prepared for the calving of an iceberg from Brunt Ice Shelf for years," Dame Jane Francis, the director of the BAS, said in a statement. "Over [the] coming weeks or months, the iceberg may move away; or it could run aground and remain close to Brunt Ice Shelf." (Icebergs are pieces of ice that have broken off from glaciers or ice shelves and are now floating in open water, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).
