Iceberg B-15

Iceberg B-15 is the world’s largest recorded iceberg. It measured around 295 km long and 37 km wide (183-23 mi), with a surface area of 11,000 km² (6,835 mi²)—larger than the island of Jamaica. The mass was estimated around three billion tonnes. After almost a decade, parts of B-15 still have not melted.

Calved from the Ross Ice Shelf near Roosevelt Island in March 2000, B-15 broke up into several pieces in 2000, 2002 and 2003, the largest of which, B-15A, covered 6,400 km² of the sea surface.[4] In November 2003, after the separation from B-15J iceberg, B-15A drifted away from Ross Island on the open waters of the Ross Sea.

In December 2003 a small knife-shaped iceberg, B-15K (about 300 km²), detached itself from the main body of B-15A and started drifting northward. In 2005 prevailing currents took B-15A slowly past the Drygalski Ice Tongue; the collision broke off the tip of Drygalski in mid-April. Then the iceberg sailed on along the coast leaving McMurdo Sound until it ran aground off Cape Adare in Victoria Land and broke into several smaller pieces on 27–28 October 2005. The largest piece was still named B-15A (now measuring approx. 1,700 km²), while three additional pieces were named B-15P, B-15M and B-15N. It then moved farther up north and broke up into more pieces. These were spotted by air force fisheries patrol on 3 November 2006. On 21 November 2006 several large pieces were seen just 60 km off the coast of Timaru, New Zealand. The largest measured about 1.8 km (~1 mi), rising 37 m (120 ft) from the surface of the ocean.