The actual experiment, though, is on Hawaii, where Lockheed is collaborating with a smaller firm, Makai Ocean Engineering, to build a ten megawatt (MW) pilot plant that should be operational by 2015.

ECONOMIST: Ocean heat may be used to generate electricity

Although the new iceberg isn't as colossal as its 2010 predecessor, its birth has moved the front end of the massive glacier farther inland than it has been in 150 years, Andreas Muenchow, an associate professor of physical ocean science and engineering at the University of Delaware, said in a statement.

MSN: Iceberg bigger than Manhattan breaks free - Technology & science - Science - OurAmazingPlanet | NBC News

In the wake of this troubling new data about ocean carbon absorption, a range of geo-engineering solutions are being hotly debated in the scientific community and piloted by eco-businesses.

CNN: Topical waters

"I started to think about what would it take to go deeper, what would it take to go to full ocean depth - that was kind of the holy grail from an engineering standpoint, " he told BBC News.

BBC: James Cameron gets ready to dive to the Mariana Trench

Goudey, the director of the MIT Sea Grant's Offshore Aquaculture Engineering Center, has devised a system by which giant spherical cages of fish would drift underwater in circular ocean currents, or gyres.

FORBES: Magazine Article