Origin of Icebergs

The origin or formation of icebergs takes place at the Polar Regions, in a land of giants. Icebergs originate from ice shelves and glaciers that surround the polar coastlines. The ice shelves are created when the slowly movement of the land ice sheet reaches the coastline and floats over into the ocean. The ice shelves can be massive in size and cover thousands of square km. When a piece of an ice shelve breaks apart due to ocean currents, tides, ocean swell or pressure from pack ice, an iceberg is created. The Antarctic ice shelves produce the largest icebergs in the world; some of them reach the size of small countries. The other source of icebergs are glaciers. Glaciers are formed from snow and ice that slowly moves downward from higher land forming a “river of ice”. When this “ice river” reaches an ocean or a lake it floats over the water until it breaks apart due its own pressure and to water movements. This glacier breaking creates icebergs.