ANTARTICA: Video and stills shot by an American scientist on Wednesday (Nov 22) capture the scale of the world's largest iceberg, which recently broke free and is now drifting towards the Southern Ocean
At almost 4,000 square km (1,500 square miles), the Antarctic iceberg called A23a is roughly three times the size of New York City.
Lindy Elkins-Tanton, a planetary scientist and principal investigator at NASA Psyche Mission, told Reuters that the iceberg is the largest surviving fragment of an iceberg that broke free of the Filchner Ice Shelf in August 1986.
She said her crew spent hours sailing alongside the iceberg in the Weddell Sea on Wednesday.
As it gains speed, the colossal berg will likely be launched into the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
This will funnel it toward the Southern Ocean on a path known as "iceberg alley" where others of its kind can be found bobbing in dark waters. — Reuters