NOW THAT’S AN ICE SHELF!
The mile-wide berg with a flat top and sharp corners
THE angles are so perfect it looks like it could have been cut with a knife.
But this iceberg owes its flat top and rectangular shape to the fact that it has only recently broken free from the Antarctic ice shelf.
In time, the weather, the ocean and other ice will wear away the clean angles of the mile- wide chunk. It was spotted by US scientists from the Nasa space agency off the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Floating amid chunks of sea ice, it is known as a tabular iceberg. Nasa said: ‘The iceberg’s sharp angles and flat surface indicate that it probably recently calved.’ Tabular icebergs are formed when their weight snaps them free of the ice shelves, which are large floating sheets connected to landmasses. Non-tabular icebergs, such as the one that sunk the Titanic, can form in many different ways, including from the break-up of larger icebergs.
Like all icebergs, only about 10 per cent is visible above the water. The image was taken during an IceBridge flight – a survey of the planet’s polar ice.
Nasa scientist Kelly Brunt said: ‘Tabular icebergs are rather like fingernails that crack off, giving them sharp edges. What makes this one a bit unusual is that it looks almost like a square.’