File:Iceberg A66 off South Georgia (MODIS 2016-09-30).jpg

English: In late September 2016, the clouds around South Georgia Island parted to reveal a large bright-white iceberg floating in the Atlantic Ocean just northwest of the island. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured a true-color image of the icy scene on September 26.

Icebergs are large chunks of ice which break off of glaciers or ice shelves. According to the U.S. National Ice Center (USNIC), to be classified as an “iceberg”, the ice extruding from the water must be at least five meters above sea level, must be between 30-50 meters thick, and must cover an area of at last 500 square meters. After calving, icebergs can travel many hundreds of miles from their calving front, moving most rapidly during the austral summer when sea ice melts and open water becomes more prevalent.

Icebergs are named by the USNIC with names based on the Antarctic quadrant in which they originated and the order in which they were discovered. This iceberg, A66, was the 66th iceberg named which originated from the Bellingshausen/Weddell Sea.