Antarctica shed a 208-mile-long berg in 1956

One of the largest known Antarctic icebergs broke off in 1956. Julie Palis and Guy Guthridge of the Naitonal Science Foundation and Lyn Lay, the librarian at Byrd Polar Research Center, found an article about it in the Polar Times, vol. 43, page 18.

Here is the entire text:

"A record iceberg seen in Antarctic

"Little America V, Antarctica, Nov. 17- The U.S.S. Glacier, the Navy's most powerful icebreaker, has sighted an iceberg more than twice the size of Connecticut.

"The berg was sighted by the Glacier early this week about 150 miles west of Scott Island. The ship reported it was 60 miles wide and 208 miles long- or more than 12,000 square miles, as against Connecticut's 5,009.

"According to the United States Navy sailing directions for Antarctica, the largest berg hitherto reported was that seen Jan. 7, 1927, off Clarence Island by the Norwegian whale catcher Obb I. The ship said it was 130 feet high and roughly 100 miles long. Both these gargantuan icebergs were of the tabular variety typical of Antarctica. This type consists of a section of continental ice sheet that has pushed out a great distance over the sea before breaking off – a situation that does not arise in the Arctic. The tabular berg has a flat top and is of uniform height, drawing roughly 700 feet of water.

"It was the "calving" that is, breaking off, of such an immense wafer of ice at the Bay of Whales sometime between 1948 and 1955 that deprived the original Little America of its harbor. Hence this camp, built early this year, had to be set up on Kainan Bay, thrity-five miles to the east."