The largest iceberg in history just broke off Antarctica

Larsen C Ice Shelf broke loose from Antarctica, creating an iceberg the size of Delaware.

Scientists announced Wednesday that a much-anticipated break at the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica has occurred, unleashing a massive iceberg that is more than 2,200 square miles in area and weighs a trillion tons.

In other words, the iceberg — among the largest in recorded history to splinter off the Antarctic continent — is close to the size of Delaware and consists of almost four times as much ice as the fast melting ice sheet of Greenland loses in a year. It is expected to be given the name “A68″ soon, scientists said.

“Its volume is twice that of Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes,” wrote researchers with Project MIDAS, a research group at Swansea and Aberystwyth Universities in Wales that has been monitoring the situation closely by satellite.

The break was detected by one NASA satellite instrument, MODIS on the Aqua satellite, and confirmed by a second…