Iceberg B-46 calving from Pine Island Glacier

Iceberg B-46 is a large

iceberg An iceberg is a piece of fresh water ice more than long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". Much of an i ...

that broke free from

Pine Island Glacier Pine Island Glacier (PIG) is a large ice stream, and the fastest melting glacier in Antarctica. responsible for about 13% of Antarctica's ice loss. The glacier flows west-northwest along the south side of the Hudson Mountains into Pine Island B ...

in Antarctica in October 2018. It was 225sq km at its greatest extent. The iceberg was detected by the

Landsat 8 Landsat 8 is an American Earth observation satellite launched on 11 February 2013. It is the eighth satellite in the Landsat program and the seventh to reach orbit successfully. Originally called the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), it i ...

satellite and later photographed by a NASA DC-8 as part of their IceBridge recording project. The shedding of icebergs by the Pine Island Glacier used to occur on average every 6 years; but has become a near annual event.

References

2018 in Antarctica B-46 {{Glaciology-stub