Delaware-sized iceberg breaking up in South Atlantic

Satellite imagery taken  Tuesday reportedly revealed that a Delaware-sized iceberg dubbed A68a has begun to break apart in the South Atlantic.

Though the cracks have become more pronounced, they have not yet gone all the way through the iceberg, the BBC reports. The mass first broke off from Antarctica in 2017.

The images of the iceberg were obtained by the European Union’s Sentinel-1 radar spacecraft.

“Nearly three-and-a-half years since it calved away from Larsen C Ice Shelf, Iceberg A68a – the fourth largest on record – is finally beginning to disintegrate,” Adrian Luckman of Swansea University told the BBC.

Luckman noted that the iceberg is not only one of the biggest recorded, it is also one of the most observed icebergs.

“With such a massive recent growth in the volume of satellite data and a huge improvement in the speed at which it can be made available, this capability has been put to good use in monitoring this huge iceberg on its journey from birth to destruction,” said Luckman.

The iceberg is floating off the coast of South Georgia in the South Atlantic, where officials had expressed concerns it could strike the island.

The BBC notes that experts have been observing the iceberg to see if it might ground in shallow water, which could cause issues for penguins and seals in the area as they forage for food.

Last week, a large fragment of A68a, named A68d, broke off from the iceberg.