Icebergs cover a huge spectrum of sizes, from the tiny “growlers” (less than 3 ft tall and 15 ft across, or smaller than the U.S. Coast Guard definition above) and “bergy bits” (up to the ...

Bergy bits are hard to detect and, with masses of up to 5,400 tons, can inflict serious damage on ocean vessels that can crash into the hard-to-spot chunks when veering away from larger icebergs.

The smaller icebergs are known as growlers (less than 3.3 feet high by less than 16 feet long) and bergy bits (3.3 to 16 feet high by 16 to 49 feet long).

No-one knows for sure, but the berg might even be there for years, defending its title as the world’s biggest and resisting its eventual break-up into bergy bits and growlers.

A23a is surrounding itself with an armada of off-cuts - of football-pitch-sized "bergy bits" and lorry-sized "growlers". The interplay of winds, ...

The biggest iceberg in the world, named A23a, appears to have run aground off the island of South Georgia.