NASA finds 'glitch in the matrix' perfectly cut 1,000,000,000,000 ton iceberg floating in Antarctica

When you think of the shape of an iceberg, quite a few different ideas might pop into your head.

Most of them will probably be some increasingly strange and whacky polygon, with bits jutting off every section of the jagged edges.

What you are unlikely to imagine is a perfect rectangle that looks like someone has carved it out of the ice sheet with a chisel.

But that is exactly what one iceberg spotted by NASA looks like, with a remarkable photograph showing the strangely-shaped slab.

If nothing else it just shows up the importance of context, with the rectangular iceberg looking entirely out of place as it floats in the sea.

This is what you'd expect an iceberg to look like right? (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

NASA snapped the image as part of Operation IceBridge, a mission which was intended to image the Earth's polar regions.

This was intended to be used as a guide to how much the ice sheets have changed in recent years, including thickness, location, and accumulation among many other factors.

As for the ice sheet itself, it was spotted by a NASA plane as it floated off the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica.

The near-perfect right angles might give the impression that it is made by humans, but it is in fact an entirely natural phenomenon.

That's because it's a different category of iceberg called a tabular iceberg.

This are a sort which have very steep sides and a flat surface, and can often break off into disconcertingly clean angles which are close to 90 degrees.

According to NASA scientist Kelly Brunt however, these angles don't last very long as factors such as the wind and the ocean will soon wear away the sharp edges and round out the iceberg.

It doesn't look real does it? (NASA)

You are probably aware of the commonly-known fact that most of an iceberg is actually hidden beneath the surface of the water.

However in this case it's not immediately clear whether the iceberg is in fact floating fully or resting on the ocean floor.

Tabular icebergs can be extremely big, with the largest one on record having the catchy name Iceberg B-15.

Presumably the B stands for 'behemoth' as the berg is a whopping 183 miles long and 23 miles wide.

This gives it an area of 4,209 square miles, meaning if it were a country it would be the 166th largest in the world.

It would be larger than Gambia with an area of 4,127 square miles and just behind Jamaica at 4,244 square miles.

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