The elongated iceberg, detected by satellites, measures 183 miles by 22 miles and is among the largest ever observed, according to the National Science Foundation, which coordinates American research at the South Pole.
Scientists estimated that the iceberg surface area is about 4,247 square miles. Delaware is 1,932 square miles.
"This is a very big iceberg, close to a record if not a new record," said Matthew Lazzara, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Antarctica Meteorological Research Center, which is supported by the NSF.
An announcement said the iceberg formed from glacial ice moving off the Antarctic continent and into the sea. It broke off along cracks that formed in the Ross Ice Shelf.
Although Antarctica is very cold, the continent receives only about an inch of precipitation a year. Based on this, scientists said it will take up to a century to replace the ice lost to the new iceberg. Calving of the iceberg moved the boundary of the Ross Ice Shelf southward about 25 miles.
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