Would you like some ice with that?

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Antarctica’s fastest melting glacier lost a 71.5-square-mile iceberg last weekend in an event that has researchers concerned.

 

The iceberg, about three times the size of Manhattan, broke off of Pine Island Glacier, scientist Stef Lhermitte said on Twitter.

 

It marks Pine Island’s fifth calving event since 2000, Lhermitte said.

 

The break comes after a 2,200-square-mile iceberg broke off from the glacier in July.

 

It was traced to a crack that formed deep beneath the surface of the ice, suggesting that the ocean is weakening ice on the continent’s edges, according to a press release.

 

Researchers are concerned about the increasing frequency of calving events.

 

The glacier’s rapid retreat would bring ice from the interior of the ice sheet to the ocean, and cause coastlines around the world to flood.

 

The iceberg, now in the Amundsen Sea, is expected to move into Pine Island Bay, according to the Ice Center.

 

“The fact that the calving events have gotten a little more frequent is not a good sign,” Chris Shuman of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center told USA Today.

 

He added that all signs point toward the trend continuing, which could cause sea levels to rise.

 

The iceberg is expected to break and cause a cluster of smaller icebergs to drift out to sea.

 

The regular calving events are likely the result of warm ocean water temperatures, Shuman told Gizmodo.

 

Pine Island Glacier already loses 45 billion tons of ice each year.

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While I was watching All In with Chris Hayes recently I heard renowned astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson make the following comment:

“Here in New York, if we lose the ice caps, the water would come up to the Statue of Liberty’s elbow, the one that’s holding the Declaration of Independence, that’s where the water line will be.”