Largest iceberg ever

The largest tabular iceberg was over 31,000 square kilometres (12,000 square miles) – making it larger than Belgium. It was 335 kilometres (208 miles) long and 97 kilometres (60 miles) wide and was sighted 240 kilometres (150 miles) west of Scott Island, in the Southern Ocean, Antarctica, by the USS Glacier on 12 Nov 1956. The extent of the iceberg witnessed by the crew of the Glacier was estimated, as they did not have the benefit of satellite photography.

The largest iceberg reliably assessed using satellite imagery is iceberg B15, which calved from Antarctica's Ross ice shelf in March 2000 and according to NASA measured approximately 300 km long by 40 km wide (186 x 25 mi), with a surface area of some 11,000 km2 (4,250 sq mi).

The tabular iceberg is typical of Antarctica and consists of a section of continental ice sheet that has pushed out a great distance over the sea before breaking off – a process known as "calving".