Not just a blob of ice floating around

– Researchers from Nasa have discovered a rectangular iceberg floating in the sea off Antarctica during an aerial survey of polar ice.

The so-called tabular iceberg , left, was photographed by scientist Jeremy Harbeck and is notable for its unusually sharp edges, the US space agency said.

“I thought it was pretty interesting; I often see icebergs with

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relatively straight edges, but I’ve not really seen one before with two corners at such right angles like this one had,” Harbeck said.

The sharp edges show the iceberg was freshly calved from the shelf ice known as Larsen C, his post on the website explained.

Nasa did not say how large the iceberg was.

In July 2017, the same ice shelf released the enormous iceberg A68, which became famous because of its size – 175km long and 50km wide.

The aerial survey is part of Nasa’s project Operation IceBridge, which is designed to analyse changes in the polar ice and to understand how the polar regions are connected to the global climate.

The researchers are expected to return on November 18. – dpa