At a Glance

NASA scientists have provided a close look at the giant iceberg that broke off of the Larsen C ice shelf.The images were captured during a flyover mission.The iceberg has a surface area of more than 2,200 square miles.

Now that Antarctica is nearing its summer, researchers have finally gotten close enough to capture spectacular photos of the massive iceberg that broke off of the Larsen C ice shelf.

The giant ice slab, named iceberg A-68, is with its surface area of 2,240 square miles, according to the Climate Central.

NASA’s Operation IceBridge did a flyover of the berg. Kathryn Hansen, a science writer for the space agency, wrote in a blog post that she . The researchers were stunned by what they saw.

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“I was aware that I would be seeing an iceberg the size of Delaware, but I wasn’t prepared for how that would look from the air,” NASA science writer Kathryn Hansen wrote in a blog post. “Most icebergs I have seen appear relatively small and blocky andtheentire part of the berg that risesabove the ocean surface is visibleat once. Not this berg.

“A-68 is so expansive it appears if it were still part of the ice shelf. But if you look far into the distance you can see a thin line of water between the iceberg and where the new front of the shelf begins,” she added.

During their expedition, the researchers also looked into the depth of the water and the bedrock underneath the iceberg with the help of radar and gravimeter technology, which .

The mission has afforded the scientists their closest look at the iceberg yet.

Iceberg A-68 .

The photo above shows the edge of iceberg A-68, which calved from the Larsen C ice shelf in July 2017. (NASA/Nathan Kurtz)