Arched iceberg floating off the western Antarctic Peninsula, Southern Ocean

© Steven Kazlowski/Nature Picture Librar

An ocean's frozen cathedral. Arched iceberg, western Antarctic Peninsula, Southern Ocean

A sculpted arch of ice rises from the Southern Ocean along the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth. This formation began as compacted snow that turned into glacial ice over thousands of years. Eventually, part of a glacier or floating ice shelf fractured and broke free—a process known as calving—creating a drifting iceberg.

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