News Direct's video: World s largest iceberg breaks into smaller chunks near South Georgia

For story suggestions or custom animation requests, contact tips@nextanimation.com.tw. Visit http://archive.nextanimationstudio.com to view News Direct's complete archive of 3D news animations. RESTRICTIONS: Broadcast: NO USE JAPAN, NO USE TAIWAN Digital: NO USE JAPAN, NO USE TAIWAN A massive iceberg that threatened the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia has broken up into four pieces, Live Science reported, citing the U.S. National Ice Center and the European Space Agency. The BBC reports experts feared the iceberg would become grounded on the underwater shelf just offshore. This would have devastated the local ecosystem as it would have forced animals such as king penguins and elephant seals to travel much greater distances to find food. The iceberg would also have crushed wildlife on the seafloor where it anchored. RUNDOWN SHOWS: 1. Location of South Georgia and Iceberg A68a on a map 2. Path of Iceberg A68a as it approached South Georgia 3. Iceberg A68d breaks off from Iceberg A68a 4. Icebergs A68e and A68f separate from Iceberg A68a 5. Depiction of penguins on a chunk of floating ice 6. Changes in the depth of Icebergs A68a's keel over time VOICEOVER (in English): "Experts are observing the remainder of Iceberg A68a, which has shattered into FOUR city-sized chunks, according to the U.S. National Ice Center." "The main iceberg — which is still 2,606 square kilometers, or about 1,000 square miles, large — is now floating away from the island of South Georgia." "Iceberg A68a was one of the largest icebergs ever recorded in the satellite record when it broke off from the Larsen-C ice shelf in Antarctica in July of 2017." "The massive iceberg was drifting dangerously close to the British overseas island this past month." "Satellite images from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission and NASA's MODIS show A68d had broken off from the northernmost section of the main iceberg in mid December." "It has remained close to South Georgia, possibly because it hit a shallow seabed. A68d has an area of 144 square kilometers, or 54 square miles." "On Tuesday, Dec. 22, two new icebergs, called A68e and A68f, calved from A68a." "A68e measures 655 square kilometers, or 252 square miles, in size. A68f is smaller at 255 square kilometers, or 86 square miles, in size — more than twice the size of Paris." "The BBC reports that scientists are monitoring the iceberg to see if it gets stuck in the shallow waters off South Georgia. If this happens it could threaten local wildlife by increasing the distance animals like seals and penguins have to travel to forage for food." "Ongoing analysis shows that the keel of the iceberg, which was already considered thin for its size when it formed in 2017, has been growing even thinner, which possibly has facilitated the breakup." "When it calved from Antarctica the keel had an average thickness of 232 meters, or 760 feet, with the deepest section measuring 285 meters, about 935 feet. It is now around 32 meters, or 105 feet, thinner on average." SOURCES: Live Science, BBC News, Government of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands, Swoop Antarctica, U.S. National Ice Center, British Antarctic Survey https://www.sciencealert.com/world-s-largest-iceberg-is-now-a-lot-smaller-splitting-into-four-pieces https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55413969 https://www.gov.gs/environment/south-georgia-the-south-sandwich-islands/ https://www.swoop-antarctica.com/travel/wildlife/south-georgia https://usicecenter.gov/PressRelease/IcebergA68E_F https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/a68-iceberg-heads-towards-south-georgia/ *** ----------------------------------------­­---------------------------------------­-­---------------- Next Animation Studio’s News Direct service provides daily, high-quality, informative 3D news animations that fill in for missing footage and help viewers understand breaking news stories or in-depth features on science, technology, and health. Sign up for a free trial of News Direct's news animations at http://newsdirect.nextanimationstudio.com/trial/ To subscribe to News Direct or for more info, please visit: http://newsdirect.nextanimationstudio.com