The UK’s polar ship, RRS Sir David Attenborough, has come face to face with the world’s biggest iceberg.
The planned encounter allowed scientists on board the research vessel a closer look at one of the true wonders of the natural world.
A23a, as the berg is known, covers 3,900 sq km (1,500 sq miles), twice the size of Greater London.
It broke from the Antarctic coast in 1986 and has spent much of the time since stuck fast to the seafloor.
But during the past year, currents and winds have driven the frozen block rapidly across the Weddell Sea. And it is now set to spill beyond the White Continent, into the Southern Ocean.
The Attenborough intercepted A23a on Friday, 1 December, about 90km (56 miles) north-east of Joinville Island, at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
