New iceberg breaks free from Antartica

An iceberg more than nine times larger than Singapore has broken off Antarctica.

The National Ice Centre reported today that the berg, named B-22, broke free from an ice tongue in the Amundsen Sea, an area of Antarctica south of the Pacific Ocean.

The iceberg is 40 miles wide and 53 miles long, covering 2,130 square miles, or about nine times as large as Singapore.

The iceberg was discovered through photographs taken by defence satellites.

Icebergs are named after the section of Antarctica where they are first sighted. The B designation covers the Amundsen and eastern Ross seas and the 22 indicates it is the 22nd iceberg sighted there by the Ice Centre.