But Trolltunga is not the largest berg on record. Glacier measured an Antarctic iceberg that was 208 miles long and 60 miles wide with and area of 12,480 square miles, larger than the state of Maryland. On land it would have stretched from Washington, D.C., to New York City. Antarctic icebergs can be 200 feet above the water's surface and extend 1,000 feet or more underwater. Antarctic icebergs are not a danger to ships except in the Cook Straight south of Cape Horn where the passage between Antarctica and South America is fairly narrow.
Most Arctic icebergs calve, or break off, from glaciers in northern Greenland.
Then they float south into the North Atlantic driven by wind and ocean currents. A small iceberg caused one of the greatest maritime disasters of all time, the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912. Then the world's largest liner, the Titanic was steaming through the night sea on her maiden voyage from England to America when the captain failed to heed iceberg warnings and the ship hit the iceberg. Only 711 people survived. As a result of the disaster, the International Ice Patrol was formed, with the U.S. Coast Guard given the job of patrolling the North Atlantic for dangerous icebergs.