A massive crack in the Pine Island glacier (PIG) in Antarctica has created a massive iceberg as big as New York City. While cracks in glaciers are common — PIG cracked in 2001 and 2007 — this one took longer to propagate, which meant that more ice has accumulated by the time giant iceberg broke away.
The German Earth-observation satellite TerraSAR-X confirmed the break on Monday using radar imaging. Now, the 30km-wide iceberg will drift into the Southern Ocean. [New Scientist]